Yes, but word classes is wrong and no sane grammar teacher would take the argument below seriously.  If ATEG comes out with a proposal like that it is doomed to failure.  

Phil

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Eduard C. Hanganu" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Jul 26, 2006 4:49 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Grammar Terms Definitions
>
>Peter,
>
>Webster's Unabridged defines "speech* as:
>
>1.the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication; ability to 
>express one's thoughts and emotions by speech sounds and gesture: 
>Losing her speech made her feel isolated from humanity.
>
>2.the act of speaking: He expresses himself better in speech than in 
>writing.
>
>3.something that is spoken; an utterance, remark, or declaration: We 
>waited for some speech that would indicate her true feelings.
>
>4.a form of communication in spoken language, made by a speaker 
>before an audience for a given purpose: a fiery speech.
>
>5.any single utterance of an actor in the course of a play, motion 
>picture, etc.
>
>6.the form of utterance characteristic of a particular people or 
>region; a language or dialect.
>
>7.manner of speaking, as of a person: Your slovenly speech is holding 
>back your career.
>
>8.a field of study devoted to the theory and practice of oral 
>communication.
>
>All these definitions restrict the meaning of *parts of speech* to 
>the spoken language, or utterances. But speech is only one part of 
>language. The other part is writing. Also, when grammarians refer to 
>*parts of speech* they actually mean different morphological classes 
>of words. For these reasons I believe that *word classes* defines 
>much better the items grammarians refer to than *parts of speech.*
>
>Eduard   
>
>
>
>On Wed, 26 Jul 2006, Peter Adams wrote...
>
>>
>>In a message dated 7/26/06 10:46:14 AM, [log in to unmask] 
>writes:
>>
>>
>>> 
>>> Parts of Speech if fine for me.  It recognizes the more primary 
>aspect of 
>>> language as Speech.  The ability to analyze all Speech (not just 
>writing) is 
>>> what grammar offers. 
>>> 
>>
>>But wouldn't phrases and clauses and, for that matter, paragraphs 
>also 
>>qualify as parts of speech?   It seems to me that "word classes" 
>captures much more 
>>precisely the meaning we intend.   I fear that parts of speech 
>doesn't only 
>>"recognize the more primary aspect of language as speech," but it 
>could be 
>>understood as applying only to speech, which, of course, is not the 
>case.   "Word 
>>classes" more accurately captures the fact that what we are talking 
>about is a 
>>feature of both speech and writing.   I would love to see the 
>term "word 
>>classes" used more widely.
>>
>>
>>
>>Peter Adams
>>
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>>
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>>
>
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