10
noun classes, which are
more general than just gender, and include additional classes like:
animated, humane, plants, animals, things, and immaterial for concepts and verbal
nouns/actions, sometimes as well shapes
Categories may be described and named with regard to the type of meanings that they are
used to express. For example, the category of tense usually expresses the time of occurrence (e.g.
past, present or future). However, purely grammatical features do not always correspond simply
or consistently
to elements of meaning, and different authors may take significantly different
approaches in their terminology and analysis. For example, the meanings associated with the
categories of tense, aspect and mood are often bound up in verb conjugation patterns that do not
have separate grammatical elements corresponding to
each of the three categories; see Tense–
aspect–mood.
Categories may be marked on words by means of inflection. In English, for example, the number
of a noun is usually marked by leaving the noun uninflected if it is singular, and by adding the
suffix
-s
if it is plural (although some nouns have irregular plural forms). On other occasions, a
category may not be marked overtly on the item to which it pertains, being manifested only
through other grammatical features of
the sentence, often by way of grammatical agreement.
For example:
The bird can sing.
The bird
s
can sing.
In the above sentences, the number of the noun is marked by the absence or presence of the
ending
-s
.
The sheep
Dostları ilə paylaş: