The Principles of Classification as Used by Non-Structural Descriptive
Grammarians
Non-structural descriptive grammarians adopted the system of parts of
speech worked out by prescriptivists and elaborated it further.
Henry Sweet
(1892), similar to his predecessors, divided words into declinable and indeclinable.
To declinables he attributed noun-words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral,
infinitive, gerund), adjective-words (adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-
numeral, participle), verb (finite verb), verbals (infinitive, gerund, participle) and
to indeclinables (particles), adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. Henry
Sweet speaks of three principles of classification: form, meaning, and function.
However, the results of his classification reveal a considerable divergence between
theory and practice: the division of the parts of speech into declinable and
indeclinable is a division based on form. Only within the class can we see the
operation of the principle of function.
Otto Jespersen
, another noted descriptivist, also speaks of three principles
of classification: “In my opinion everything should be kept in view, form, function
and meaning...” (O Jespersen, 1935:91). On the basis of the three criteria, the
scholar distinguishes the following parts of speech: substantives, adjectives,
pronouns, verbs, and particles (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections).
Otto Jespersen’s system is a further elaboration of Henry Sweet’s system. Unlike
Henry Sweet, Otto Jespersen separates nouns (which he calls substantives) from
noun-words, a class of words distinguished on the basis of function – a noun word
is a word that can function as a noun; he also distinguishes pronouns as a separate
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