The structure and grammatical categories of verbs. Contents introduction chapter I. Theoretical background

Identifying Grammar Groups

One of the simplest ways to create grammatical categories is by grouping words together based on their class. Classes are word sets that display the same formal properties, such as inflection or verb tense.

Put another way, grammatical categories can be defined as sets of words with similar meanings (called semantics.)

There are two families of classes:

• 
  lexical
  
• 
  functional
  

The lexical class includes:

• 
  nouns
  
• 
  verbs
  
• 
  adjectives
  
• 
  adverbs
  

The functional class includes:

• 
  determiners
  
• 
  particles
  
• 
  prepositions
  
• 
  modals
  
• 
  qualifiers
  
• 
  question words
  
• 
  conjunctions
  
• 
  other words denoting position or spatial relationships
  

Using this definition, you can create grammatical categories like this: 

• 
  Verbs denote actions (go, destroy, buy, eat, etc.)
  
• 
  Nouns denote entities (car, cat, hill, John, etc.)
  
• 
  Adjectives denote states (ill, happy, rich, etc.)
  
• 
  Adverbs denote manner (badly, slowly, painfully, cynically, etc.)
  
• 
  Prepositions denote location (under, over, outside, in, on, etc.)
  

Grammar groups can be further divided, depending on a word's defining properties. Nouns, for instance, can be further subdivided into number, gender, case, and countability. Verbs can be subdivided by tense, aspect, or voice.

A word can be classified into more than one grammatical category. For instance, a word can be both plural and feminine.