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{{Short description|Category of words based on shared grammatical properties in a clause}}
{{about||the album by Dessa|Parts of Speech (album)}}
{{Distinguish|Grammatical category}}
In [[grammar]], a '''part of speech''' or '''part-of-speech''' ([[Abbreviation|abbreviated]] as '''POS''' or '''PoS''', also known as '''word class'''<ref name=rijkhoff2007>{{cite journal | last=Rijkhoff | first=Jan | title=Word Classes | journal=Language and Linguistics Compass | publisher=Wiley | volume=1 | issue=6 | year=2007 | issn=1749-818X | doi=10.1111/j.1749-818x.2007.00030.x | pages=709–726| s2cid=5404720 }}</ref> or '''grammatical category'''<ref>{{cite book |last=Payne |first=Thomas E. |title=Describing morphosyntax: a guide for field linguists |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1997 |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780511805066}}</ref>) is a category of words (or, more generally, of [[lexical item]]s) that have similar [[grammar|grammatical]] properties. Words that are assigned to the same part of speech generally display similar [[syntax|syntactic]] behavior (they play similar roles within the grammatical structure of sentences), sometimes similar [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] behavior in that they undergo [[inflection]] for similar properties and even similar [[semantic]] behavior. Commonly listed [[English language|English]] parts of speech are [[noun]], [[verb]], [[adjective]], [[adverb]], [[pronoun]], [[preposition]], [[conjunction (grammar)|conjunction]], [[interjection]], [[Numeral (linguistics)|numeral]], [[article (grammar)|article]], and [[determiner]].

Other terms than ''part of speech''—particularly in modern [[linguistics|linguistic]] classifications, which often make more precise distinctions than the traditional scheme does—include '''word class''', '''lexical class''', and '''lexical category'''. Some authors restrict the term ''lexical category'' to refer only to a particular type of [[syntactic category]]; for them the term excludes those parts of speech that are considered to be [[function word]]s, such as pronouns. The term '''form class''' is also used, although this has various conflicting definitions.<ref>John Lyons, ''Semantics'', CUP 1977, p. 424.</ref> Word classes may be classified as [[#Open and closed classes|open or closed]]: ''open classes'' (typically including nouns, verbs and adjectives) acquire new members constantly, while ''closed classes'' (such as pronouns and conjunctions) acquire new members infrequently, if at all.

Almost all languages have the word classes noun and verb, but beyond these two there are significant variations among different languages.<ref name="Krueger 2005 35">{{cite book|last=Krueger|first=Paul|title=Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-01653-7|pages=35}}</ref> For example:
* [[Japanese language|Japanese]] has as many as [[Japanese adjectives|three classes of adjective]]s, where [[English language|English]] has one.
* [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] have a class of [[classifier (linguistics)|nominal classifier]]s.
* Many languages do not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs, or between adjectives and verbs (see [[stative verb]]).

Because of such variation in the number of categories and their identifying properties, analysis of parts of speech must be done for each individual language. Nevertheless, the labels for each category are assigned on the basis of universal criteria.<ref name="Krueger 2005 35"/>

==History==
The classification of words into lexical categories is found from the earliest moments in the [[history of linguistics]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Robins RH |year=1989 |title=General Linguistics |edition=4th |location=London |publisher=Longman}}</ref>

===India===
In the ''[[Nirukta]]'', written in the 6th or 5th century BCE, the [[Sanskrit]] grammarian [[Yāska]] defined four main categories of words:<ref name=Matilal>
{{cite book
|author = Bimal Krishna Matilal
|title = The word and the world: India's contribution to the study of language (Chapter 3)
|year = 1990
|author-link = Bimal Krishna Matilal
}}</ref>

* नाम ''nāma'' – [[noun]] (including adjective)
* आख्यात ''ākhyāta'' – [[verb]]
* उपसर्ग ''upasarga'' – pre-verb or [[prefix]]
* निपात ''nipāta'' – [[Grammatical particle|particle]], invariant word (perhaps [[preposition]])
These four were grouped into two larger classes: [[inflection|inflectable]] (nouns and verbs) and uninflectable (pre-verbs and particles).

The ancient work on the grammar of the [[Tamil language]], ''[[Tolkāppiyam]]'', argued to have been written around 2nd century CE,<ref name="Mahadevan">{{cite book |last=Mahadevan |first=I. |title=Early Tamil Epigraphy - From the Earliest Times to the Sixth century C.E., 2nd Edition |date=2014 |pages=271}}</ref> classifies Tamil words as ''peyar'' (பெயர்; noun), ''vinai'' (வினை; verb), ''idai'' (part of speech which modifies the relationships between verbs and nouns), and ''uri'' (word that further qualifies a noun or verb).<ref name=Ilakkuvan>
{{cite book
|author =Ilakkuvanar S
|title = Tholkappiyam in English with critical studies |edition=2nd
|publisher = Educational Publisher
|year = 1994
}}</ref>

===Western tradition===
A century or two after the work of Yāska, the [[Classical Greece|Greek]] scholar [[Plato]] wrote in his [[Cratylus (dialogue)|''Cratylus'' dialogue]], "sentences are, I conceive, a combination of verbs [''rhêma''] and nouns [''ónoma'']".<ref>Cratylus 431b</ref> [[Aristotle]] added another class, "conjunction" [''sýndesmos''], which included not only the words known today as [[Conjunction (grammar)|conjunctions]], but also other parts (the interpretations differ; in one interpretation it is [[pronoun]]s, [[preposition]]s, and the [[article (grammar)|article]]).<ref>''The Rhetoric, Poetic and Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle'', translated by Thomas Taylor, London 1811, p. 179.</ref>

By the end of the 2nd century BCE, grammarians had expanded this classification scheme into eight categories, seen in the ''[[Art of Grammar]]'', attributed to [[Dionysius Thrax]]:<ref>[[Dionysius Thrax]]. τέχνη γραμματική (Art of Grammar), [http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante02/DionysiosThrax/dio_tech.html#11 ια´ περὶ λέξεως (11. On the word)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315015105/http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante02/DionysiosThrax/dio_tech.html#11 |date=2015-03-15 }}:
:λέξις ἐστὶ μέρος ἐλάχιστον τοῦ κατὰ σύνταξιν λόγου. λόγος δέ ἐστι πεζῆς λέξεως σύνθεσις διάνοιαν αὐτοτελῆ δηλοῦσα. τοῦ δὲ λόγου μέρη ἐστὶν ὀκτώ· ὄνομα, ῥῆμα, μετοχή, ἄρθρον, ἀντωνυμία, πρόθεσις, ἐπίρρημα, σύνδεσμος. ἡ γὰρ προσηγορία ὡς εἶδος τῶι ὀνόματι ὑποβέβληται.
:A word is the smallest part of organized speech. Speech is the putting together of an ordinary word to express a complete thought. The class of word consists of eight categories: noun, verb, participle, article, pronoun, preposition, adverb, conjunction. A common noun in form is classified as a noun.</ref>

* 'Name' (''ónoma'') translated as 'noun': a part of speech inflected for [[grammatical case|case]], signifying a concrete or abstract entity. It includes various ''species'' like [[noun]]s, [[adjective]]s, proper nouns, appellatives, collectives, ordinals, numerals and more.<ref>The term ''[[wikt:onoma|onoma]]'' at [[Dionysius Thrax]], ''Τέχνη γραμματική'' (Art of Grammar), [https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/Τέχνη_Γραμματική#14 14. Περὶ ὀνόματος] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910222435/https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%A4%CE%AD%CF%87%CE%BD%CE%B7_%CE%93%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BC%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE#14 |date=2022-09-10 }} translated by Thomas Davidson, [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_grammar_of_Dionysios_Thrax#10 On the noun] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804023008/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_grammar_of_Dionysios_Thrax#10 |date=2020-08-04 }}
: καὶ αὐτὰ εἴδη προσαγορεύεται· κύριον, προσηγορικόν, ἐπίθετον, πρός τι ἔχον, ὡς πρός τι ἔχον, ὁμώνυμον, συνώνυμον, διώνυμον, ἐπώνυμον, ἐθνικόν, ἐρωτηματικόν, ἀόριστον, ἀναφορικὸν ὃ καὶ ὁμοιωματικὸν καὶ δεικτικὸν καὶ ἀνταποδοτικὸν καλεῖται, περιληπτικόν, ἐπιμεριζόμενον, περιεκτικόν, πεποιημένον, γενικόν, ἰδικόν, τακτικόν, ἀριθμητικόν, ἀπολελυμένον, μετουσιαστικόν.
: also called ''Species'': proper, appellative, adjective, relative, quasi-relative, homonym, synonym, pheronym, dionym, eponym, national, interrogative, indefinite, anaphoric (also called assimilative, demonstrative, and retributive), collective, distributive, inclusive, onomatopoetic, general, special, ordinal, numeral, participative, independent.</ref>
* [[Verb]] (''rhêma''): a part of speech without case inflection, but inflected for [[grammatical tense|tense]], [[grammatical person|person]] and [[grammatical number|number]], signifying an activity or process performed or undergone
* [[Participle]] (''metokhḗ''): a part of speech sharing features of the verb and the noun
* [[Article (grammar)|Article]] (''árthron''): a declinable part of speech, taken to include the definite article, but also the basic [[relative pronoun]]
* [[Pronoun]] (''antōnymíā''): a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person
* [[Preposition]] (''próthesis''): a part of speech placed before other words in composition and in syntax
* [[Adverb]] (''epírrhēma''): a part of speech without inflection, in modification of or in addition to a verb, adjective, clause, sentence, or other adverb
* [[Grammatical conjunction|Conjunction]] (''sýndesmos''): a part of speech binding together the discourse and filling gaps in its interpretation

It can be seen that these parts of speech are defined by [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]], [[Syntax|syntactic]] and [[Semantics|semantic]] criteria.

The [[Latin grammar|Latin]] grammarian [[Priscian]] ([[floruit|fl.]] 500 CE) modified the above eightfold system, excluding "article" (since the [[Latin language]], unlike Greek, does not have articles) but adding "[[interjection]]".<ref>[penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/1B*.html This translation of Quintilian's ''Institutio Oratoria'' reads: "Our own language (Note: i.e. Latin) dispenses with the articles (Note: Latin doesn't have articles), which are therefore distributed among the other parts of speech. But interjections must be added to those already mentioned."]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/quintilian/quintilian.institutio1.shtml |via=The Latin Library |title= Quintilian: Institutio Oratoria I|access-date= 2015-09-18|archive-date= 2012-01-20|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120120203103/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/quintilian/quintilian.institutio1.shtml|url-status= live}}</ref>

The Latin names for the parts of speech, from which the corresponding modern English terms derive, were ''nomen'', ''verbum'', ''participium'', ''pronomen'', ''praepositio'', ''adverbium'', ''conjunctio'' and ''interjectio''. The category ''nomen'' included [[substantive]]s (''nomen substantivum'', corresponding to what are today called nouns in English), [[adjective]]s ''(nomen adjectivum)'' and [[Numeral (linguistics)|numeral]]s ''(nomen numerale)''. This is reflected in the older English terminology ''noun substantive'', ''noun adjective'' and ''noun numeral''. Later<ref>See for example Beauzée, Nicolas, ''Grammaire générale, ou exposition raisonnée des éléments nécessaires du langage'' (Paris, 1767), and earlier Jakob Redinger, [https://books.google.com/books?id=C7BeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA11 ''Comeniana Grammatica Primae Classi Franckenthalensis Latinae Scholae destinata ...''] (1659, in German and Latin).</ref> the adjective became a separate class, as often did the numerals, and the English word ''noun'' came to be applied to substantives only.

=== Classification ===
Works of [[English grammar]] generally follow the pattern of the European tradition as described above, except that participles are now usually regarded as forms of verbs rather than as a separate part of speech, and numerals are often conflated with other parts of speech: nouns ([[Cardinal number (linguistics)|cardinal numeral]]s, e.g., "one", and [[collective numeral]]s, e.g., "dozen"), adjectives ([[Ordinal number (linguistics)|ordinal numeral]]s, e.g., "first", and [[Multiplier (linguistics)|multiplier numeral]]s, e.g., "single") and adverbs ([[English numerals#Multiplicative adverbs and adjectives|multiplicative numerals]], e.g., "once", and [[Distributive number|distributive numeral]]s, e.g., "singly"). Eight or nine parts of speech are commonly listed:

* [[Noun]]
* [[Verb]]
* [[Adjective]]
* [[Adverb]]
* [[Pronoun]]
* [[Preposition]]
* [[Grammatical conjunction|Conjunction]]
* [[Interjection]]
* [[Determiner]]

Some traditional classifications consider articles to be adjectives, yielding eight parts of speech rather than nine. And some modern classifications define further classes in addition to these. For discussion see the sections below.

Additionally, there are other parts of speech including [[Grammatical particle|particle]]s (''yes'', ''no''){{efn|name=yes no|1=Yes and no are sometimes classified as interjections.}} and [[postposition]]s (''ago'', ''notwithstanding'') although many fewer words are in these categories.

The classification below, or slight expansions of it, is still followed in most [[dictionaries]]:
;Noun (names): a word or lexical item denoting any abstract (abstract noun: e.g. ''home'') or concrete entity (concrete noun: e.g. ''house''); a person (''police officer'', ''Michael''), place (''coastline'', ''London''), thing (''necktie'', ''television''), idea (''happiness''), or quality (''bravery''). Nouns can also be classified as [[count noun]]s or [[mass noun|non-count nouns]]; some can belong to either category. The most common part of speech; they are called naming words.
;Pronoun (replaces or places again): a substitute for a noun or noun phrase (''them, he''). Pronouns make sentences shorter and clearer since they replace nouns.
;Adjective (describes, limits): a modifier of a noun or pronoun (''big, brave''). Adjectives make the meaning of another word (noun) more precise.
;Verb (states action or being): a word denoting an action (''walk''), occurrence (''happen''), or state of being (''be''). Without a verb, a group of words cannot be a clause or sentence.
;Adverb (describes, limits): a modifier of an adjective, verb, or another adverb (''very, quite''). Adverbs make language more precise.
;Preposition (relates): a word that relates words to each other in a phrase or sentence and aids in syntactic context (''in, of''). Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun with another word in the sentence.
;Conjunction (connects): a syntactic connector; links words, phrases, or clauses (''and, but''). Conjunctions connect words or group of words.
;Interjection (expresses feelings and emotions): an emotional greeting or exclamation (''Huzzah, Alas''). Interjections express strong feelings and emotions.
;Article (describes, limits):a grammatical marker of definiteness (''the'') or indefiniteness (''a, an''). The article is not always listed separately as its own part of speech. It is considered by some grammarians to be a type of adjective<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar'' by Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker & Edmund Weine. OUP Oxford 2014. Page 35.</ref> or sometimes the term '[[determiner]]' (a broader class) is used.

English words are not generally [[marker (linguistics)|marked]] as belonging to one part of speech or another; this contrasts with many other European languages, which use [[inflection]] more extensively, meaning that a given word form can often be identified as belonging to a particular part of speech and having certain additional [[grammatical category|grammatical properties]]. In English, most words are uninflected, while the inflected endings that exist are mostly ambiguous: ''[[-ed]]'' may mark a verbal past tense, a participle or a fully adjectival form; ''[[-s (disambiguation)|-s]]'' may mark a plural noun, a possessive noun, or a present-tense verb form; ''[[-ing]]'' may mark a participle, [[gerund]], or pure adjective or noun. Although ''[[-ly]]'' is a frequent adverb marker, some adverbs (e.g. ''tomorrow'', ''fast'', ''very'') do not have that ending, while many adjectives do have it (e.g. ''friendly'', ''ugly'', ''lovely''), as do occasional words in other parts of speech (e.g. ''jelly'', ''fly'', ''rely'').

Many English words can belong to more than one part of speech. Words like ''neigh'', ''break'', ''outlaw'', ''laser'', ''microwave'', and ''telephone'' might all be either verbs or nouns. In certain circumstances, even words with primarily grammatical functions can be used as verbs or nouns, as in, "We must look to the ''hows'' and not just the ''whys''." The process whereby a word comes to be used as a different part of speech is called [[conversion (word formation)|conversion]] or zero derivation.

==Functional classification==
[[Linguists]] recognize that the above list of eight or nine word classes is drastically simplified.<ref>{{cite web | last=Zwicky | first=Arnold | date=30 March 2006 | title=What part of speech is "the" | work=[[Language Log]] | url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002974.html | access-date=26 December 2009 | quote=...the school tradition about parts of speech is so desperately impoverished | archive-date=27 December 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091227122103/http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002974.html | url-status=live }}</ref> For example, "adverb" is to some extent a catch-all class that includes words with many different functions. Some have even argued that the most basic of category distinctions, that of nouns and verbs, is unfounded,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hopper |first1=P |last2=Thompson |first2=S |year=1985 |chapter=The Iconicity of the Universal Categories 'Noun' and 'Verbs' |title=Typological Studies in Language: Iconicity and Syntax |editor=John Haiman |volume=6 |pages=151–183 |location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company}}</ref> or not applicable to certain languages.<ref>{{cite book |last=Launey |first=Michel |year=1994 |title=Une grammaire omniprédicative: essai sur la morphosyntaxe du nahuatl classique |location=Paris |publisher=CNRS Editions}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Broschart |first=Jürgen |year=1997 |title=Why Tongan does it differently: Categorial Distinctions in a Language without Nouns and Verbs |journal=Linguistic Typology |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=123–165 |doi=10.1515/lity.1997.1.2.123|s2cid=121039930 }}</ref> Modern linguists have proposed many different schemes whereby the words of English or other languages are placed into more specific categories and subcategories based on a more precise understanding of their grammatical functions.

Common lexical category set defined by function may include the following (not all of them will necessarily be applicable in a given language):
* Categories that will usually be [[#Open and closed classes|open classes]]:
** [[Adjective]]s
** [[Adverb]]s
** [[Noun]]s
** [[Verb]]s (except auxiliary verbs)
** [[Interjection]]s
* Categories that will usually be closed classes:
** [[Auxiliary verb]]s
** [[Coverb]]s
** [[Grammatical conjunction|Conjunction]]s
** [[determiner (class)|Determiners]] ([[article (grammar)|Articles]], [[Quantifier (linguistics)|quantifiers]], [[demonstrative]]s, and [[possessive determiners|possessives]])
** [[Measure word]]s or [[classifier (linguistics)|classifier]]s
** [[Adposition]]s (prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions)
** [[Preverb]]s
** [[Pronoun]]s
** [[Cardinal n

Lexical category - Revision history