Some historical context might be useful here. There was an enormous amount of flux in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries in the inventory of "parts of speech" -- school texts tended to vary between seven and ten (those that went for ten frequently counted the article and the participle as separate; those that went for seven sometimes lumped what we'd call adjectives and nouns). Somehow, society survived this disagreement among texts without descending into barbarism. Some of the texts even went so far as to point out that the actual number was a matter of convenience. Even that did not bring on a new ice age. Eight, of course, is what Latin grammarians arrived at when adopting/adapting Greek grammars; the idea that eight was the universal number of parts of speech, not to be trifled with in any way, was founded on the medieval notion that all extant languages are flawed images of Latin (oratio est omnia divisa in partes octes, or was that Gaul....I forget).
The modernish notion that parts of speech are "givens" rather than a dynamic product of categorization is partly an artifact of a market-driven consensus (maybe due to the popularity, and hence influence, of Reed and Kellogg's texts in the early twentieth century) and partly because of what always happens when you try to introduce complex material to beginning learners: you leave out the messy bits.
Now, I would not suggest that we inundate seven-year-olds with the messy bits. And using traditional terms may be strongly warranted if trying too hard to diverge from them produces more confusion and resistance than is justifiable. However, I'm not *sure* that people would react all that badly to "word classes" as a term -- after all, we're bombarding youngsters with Venn diagrams as if they're the best thing since sliced bread; it's not as if no other subject addresses the notion of categories. Like it or not, a "part of speech" is a category; nothing more, and certainly nothing less. We have to acknowledge that there are multiple ways you can divide words into categories, and that only some of these are relevant to grammar, but that doesn't seem very strange or intimidating.
Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul E. Doniger
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 6:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Grammar Terms Definitions
Wine, water, and other beverages are sold in Litres at my local markets,
although I admit, milk products still come in gallons and quarts(but saffron is
sold by the gram). The metric system has had some successes. We may be slow to
change as a society, but change does happen. I think we can make soem
changes/additions to the old Latin based terminology without throwing the baby
out with the bathwater.
Paul D.
--- Peter Adams <[log in to unmask]> 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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