hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2025-04

■ #5819. 開かれたクラス，閉じたクラス，品詞 [pos][terminology][linguistics][category][word_class][prototype][noun][verb][adjective][adverb][lexicology]

　pos のタグの着いたいくつかの記事で，品詞とは何かを論じてきた．今回も言語学辞典に拠って，品詞について理解を深めていきたい．International Encyclopedia of Linguistics の pp. 250--51 より，8段落からなる PARTS OF SPEECH の項を段落ごとに引用しよう．

PARTS OF SPEECH. Languages may vary significantly in the number and type of distinct classes, or parts of speech, into which their lexicons are divisible. However, all languages make a distinction between open and closed lexical classes, although there may be relatively few of the latter in languages favoring morphologically complex words. Open classes are those whose membership is in principle unlimited, and may differ from speaker to speaker. Closed classes are those which contain a fixed, usually small number of words, and which are essentially the same for all speakers.

　品詞論を始める前に，まず語彙を「開かれたクラス」 (open class) と「閉じたクラス」 (closed class) に大きく2分している．この2分法は普遍的であることが説かれる．

The open lexical classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Not all these classes are found in all languages; and it is not always clear whether two sets of words, having some shared and some unshared properties, should be identified as belonging to distinct open classes, or to subclasses of a single class. Criteria for determining which open classes are distinguished in a given language are syntactic and/or morphological, but the names used to identify the classes are generally based on semantic criteria.

　「開かれたクラス」についての説明が始まる．言語にもよるが，概ね名詞，動詞，形容詞，副詞が主に意味的な基準により区別されるという．

The noun/verb distinction is apparently universal. Although the existence of this distinction in certain languages has been questioned, close scrutiny of the facts has invariably shown clear, if sometimes subtle, grammatical differences between two major classes of words, one of which has typically noun-like semantics (e.g. denoting persons, places, or things), the other typically verb-like semantics (e.g. denoting actions, processes, or states).

　とりわけ名詞と動詞の2つの品詞については，ほぼ普遍的に区別されるといってよい．

 Nouns most commonly function as arguments or heads of arguments, but they may also function as predicates, either with or without a copula such as English be. Categories for which nouns are often morphologically or syntactically specified include case, number, gender, and definiteness.

　名詞の典型的な機能や保有する範疇が紹介される．

Verbs most commonly function as predicates, but in some languages may also occur as arguments. Categories for which they are often specified include tense, aspect, mood, voice, and positive/negative polarity.

　次に，動詞の典型的な機能や保有する範疇について．

Adjectives are usually identified grammatically as modifiers of nouns, but also commonly occur as predicates. Semantically, they often denote attributes. A characteristic specification is for positive, comparative, or superlative degree. Some languages do not have a distinct class of adjectives, but instead express all typically adjectival meanings with nouns and/or verbs. Other languages have a small, closed class that may be identified as adjectives --- commonly including a few words denoting size, color, age, and value --- while nouns and/or verbs are used to express the remainder of adjectival meanings.

　続けて形容詞の典型的な機能が論じられる．言語によっては形容詞という語類を明確にもたないものもある．

Adverbs, often a less than homogeneous class, may be identified grammatically as modifiers of constituents other than nouns, e.g. verbs, adjectives, or sentences. Their semantics typically varies with what they modify. As modifiers of verbs they may denote manner (e.g. slowly); of adjectives, degree (extremely); and of sentences, attitude (unfortunately). Many languages have no open class of adverbs, and express adverbial meanings with nouns, verbs, adjectives窶俳r, in some heavily affixing languages, affixes.

　さらに副詞が比較的まとまりのない品詞として紹介される．名詞以外を修飾する語として，意味特性は多様である．

Some commonly attested closed classes are articles, auxiliaries, clitics, copulas, interjections, negators, particles, politeness markers, prepositions and postpositions, pro-forms, and quantifiers. A survey of these and other closed classes, as well as a detailed account of open classes, is given by Schachter 1985.

　最後に「閉じたクラス」が簡単に触れられる．

　全体的に英語ベースの品詞論となっている感はあるが，理解しやすい解説である．この項の執筆者であり，最後に言及もある Schachter には本格的な品詞論の論考があるようだ．

　・ Frawley, William J., ed. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.
　・ Schachter, Paul. "Parts-of-Speech Systems." Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Vol. 1. Clause Structure. Ed. Timothy Shopen. p. 3?61. Cambridge and New York: CUP, 1985. 3--61.

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