This is a much more useful beginning, though as Bruce says, it will be difficult for younger students to understand.

I would begin by adding 'determiner' to the parts of speech. More use of syntactic and morphological information would be useful. It is included in some definitions, but could be usefully added to pronouns, for example, which tries to define entirely semantically.

On 2010-11-11, at 10:49 AM, Bruce wrote:

> Adjective:  a part of speech that serves as the principal modifier of a noun or pronoun, cf. §§ 159–181, 268f.

It's rare for adjectives to modify pronouns. And there are adjectives like 'glad' that do not typically function as attributive modifiers. I would acknowledge their role as complements to linking verbs.

> Conjunction:  the part of speech of a word that introduces by denoting its relation as a subordinating or a coordinating conjunction, cf. §§ 214–232, 661ff., 707–726

I don't think I understand this.

> Interjection:  the part of speech of written words that are intended to represent non-speech sounds, cf. §§ 233–239; 727–732  

Most dictionaries list 'hello' for example, as an interjection. Obviously it's not a non-speech sound.

> Preposition:  the part of speech of a word that introduces an exocentric phrase by denoting its relation to its head, cf. §§ 196–213, 695–706

Not sure I understand the referent of the two 'its's. (Not every day you get to say 'its's!)

> Verb:  the part of speech of words that denote actions, beings, or states of being and may function syntactically as the essential part of the predicate of a sentence, cf. §§ 124, 151f.

...and that uniquely have past tense forms.

> Absolute noun:  the subject of a small clause, cf. §§ 393–396, 758

Should define 'small clause'.

> Noun phrase:  an endocentric group of words that may typically occur as the subject of a sentence, cf. §§ 141, 135, 208

and typically is headed by a noun or pronoun

> Gerund:  a verbal noun formed with the suffix spelled –ing and pronounced /ij/, cf. §§ 575ff., 734ff.

Would this be 'cleaning' in a), b), or both?
a) The cleaning of the deck took two hours?
b) Cleaning the deck took two hours?

> Infinitive phrase: a transient noun form of a verb phrase, cf. §§ 735ff.; the i. p. may be either simple or perfect and also either progressive, passive, or both

If anything, 'nominal' not noun, but as I've argued before here, infinitives appear in places that no noun could appear, so I would avoid the implication altogether.

> Infinitive:  a verbal noun appearing in two forms depending on its syntactic context, the root or the phrasal form, cf. §§ 575ff., 734ff. 

I find this very cryptic. As with the above, avoid reference to noun. For example, 'go' is the root form of the infinitive in, "He may go," but there's no way you could call it a noun.

I've got to get some marking done.

Best,
Brett

-----------------------
Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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