ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the semantic functions of some of the commoner grammatical categories in different languages. Sentences can be shown to be series of words, and grammar is concerned with the analysis of the structures and regular patterns of sentences. Words may be brought into word classes in a language by reference to the syntactic relations that they contract with one another in sentences, and sentences may be analysed grammatically in these terms. In the grammatical analysis of languages words are assigned to word classes on the formal basis of syntactic behaviour, supplemented and reinforced by differences of morphological paradigms, so that every word in a language is a member of a word class. Beside the semantic correlations of formal grammatical categories, one finds similar correlations with different word classes and with sentence structures and syntactic constructions. Such correlations are familiar because traditional grammar often sought to define word classes, or 'parts of speech', in semantic terms.
