What is "part of speech"

Part \Part\ (p[aum]rt), n. [F. part, L. pars, gen. partis; cf. parere to bring forth, produce. Cf. Parent, Depart, Parcel, Partner, Party, Portion.]

1. One of the portions, equal or unequal, into which anything is divided, or regarded as divided; something less than a whole; a number, quantity, mass, or the like, regarded as going to make up, with others, a larger number, quantity, mass, etc., whether actually separate or not; a piece; a fragment; a fraction; a division; a member; a constituent.

   And kept back part of the price, . . . and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles'feet.
   --Acts v.

2. Our ideas of extension and number -- do they not contain a secret relation of the parts ? --Locke. I am a part of all that I have met. --Tennyson. 2. Hence, specifically:

   1. An equal constituent portion; one of several or many like quantities, numbers, etc., into which anything is divided, or of which it is composed; proportional division or ingredient.

      An homer is the tenth part of an ephah.
      --Ex. xvi. 36.

      A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom, And ever three parts coward.
      --Shak.

   2. A constituent portion of a living or spiritual whole; a member; an organ; an essential element.

      All the parts were formed . . . into one harmonious body.
      --Locke.

      The pulse, the glow of every part.
      --Keble.

   3. A constituent of character or capacity; quality; faculty; talent; -- usually in the plural with a collective sense. ``Men of considerable parts.''
      --Burke. ``Great quickness of parts.''
      --Macaulay.

      Which maintained so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them.
      --Shak.

   4. Quarter; region; district; -- usually in the plural. ``The uttermost part of the heaven.''
      --Neh. i. 9.

      All parts resound with tumults, plaints, and fears.
      --Dryden.

   5. (Math.) Such portion of any quantity, as when taken a certain number of times, will exactly make that quantity; as, 3 is a part of 12; -- the opposite of multiple. Also, a line or other element of a geometrical figure.

3. That which belongs to one, or which is assumed by one, or which falls to one, in a division or apportionment; share; portion; lot; interest; concern; duty; office.

   We have no part in David.
   --2 Sam. xx. 1.

   Accuse not Nature! she hath done her part; Do thou but thine.
   --Milton.

   Let me bear My part of danger with an equal share.
   --Dryden.

4. Hence, specifically:

   1. One of the opposing parties or sides in a conflict or a controversy; a faction.

      For he that is not against us is on our part.
      --Mark ix. 40.

      Make whole kingdoms take her brother's part.
      --Waller.

   2. A particular character in a drama or a play; an assumed personification; also, the language, actions, and influence of a character or an actor in a play; or, figuratively, in real life; as, to play the part of Macbeth. See To act a part, under Act.

      That part Was aptly fitted and naturally performed.
      --Shak.

      It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf.
      --Shak.

      Honor and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
      --Pope.

   3. (Mus.) One of the different melodies of a concerted composition, which heard in union compose its harmony; also, the music for each voice or instrument; as, the treble, tenor, or bass part; the violin part, etc.

      For my part, so far as concerns me; for my share.

      For the most part. See under Most, a.

      In good part, as well done; favorably; acceptably; in a friendly manner; as, to take an act in good part.
      --Hooker.

      In ill part, unfavorably; with displeasure.

      In part, in some degree; partly.

      Part and parcel, an essential or constituent portion; -- a reduplicative phrase. Cf. might and main, kith and kin, etc. ``She was . . . part and parcel of the race and place.''
      --Howitt.

      Part of speech (Gram.), a sort or class of words of a particular character; thus, the noun is a part of speech denoting the name of a thing; the verb is a part of speech which asserts something of the subject of a sentence.

      Part owner (Law), one of several owners or tenants in common. See Joint tenant, under Joint.

      Part singing, singing in which two or more of the harmonic parts are taken.

      Part song, a song in two or more (commonly four) distinct vocal parts. ``A part song differs from a madrigal in its exclusion of contrapuntual devices; from a glee, in its being sung by many voices, instead of by one only, to each part.''
      --Stainer & Barrett.

      Syn: Portion; section; division; fraction; fragment; piece; share; constituent. See Portion, and Section.

c.1500, translating Latin pars orationis (see parse). Noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Sometimes article and participle are counted among them.

n. (context grammar English) A linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties, such as noun or verb.

n. one of the traditional categories of words intended to reflect their functions in a grammatical context [syn: form class, word class]

A part of speech (abbreviated form: PoS or POS) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) which have similar grammatical properties. Words that are assigned to the same part of speech generally display similar behavior in terms of syntax—they play similar roles within the grammatical structure of sentences—and sometimes in terms of morphology, in that they undergo inflection for similar properties. Commonly listed English parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, and sometimes numeral, article or determiner.

A part of speech – particularly in more modern classifications, which often make more precise distinctions than the traditional scheme does – may also be called a word class, lexical class, or lexical category, although the term lexical category refers in some contexts to a particular type of syntactic category, and may thus exclude parts of speech that are considered to be functional, such as pronouns. The term form class is also used, although this has various conflicting definitions. Word classes may be classified as open or closed: open classes (like nouns, verbs and adjectives) acquire new members constantly, while closed classes (such as pronouns and conjunctions) acquire new members infrequently, if at all.

Almost all languages have the word classes noun and verb, but beyond these there are significant variations in different languages. For example, Japanese has as many as three classes of adjectives where English has one; Chinese, Korean and Japanese have a class of nominal classifiers; many languages lack a distinction between adjectives and adverbs, or between adjectives and verbs (see stative verbs). This variation in the number of categories and their identifying properties means that analysis needs to be done for each individual language. Nevertheless, the labels for each category are assigned on the basis of universal criteria.

"Part of speech" - the name of the cycle of Joseph Brodsky's poems created in the years 1975-1976. This cycle gave the name of a book of poems, published in 1977 by the publishing house " Ardis". The self-titled, but radically different in composition collection of selected poems of the poet was published in 1990 in the USSR. Released in 1980 under the same name, the English-language book of poems by Brodsky only half consists of translations of poems included in the Russian edition of 1977. Translation cycle "Part of Speech" in English, made with the participation and edited by Brodsky, including 15 of the 20 cycle of poems, whose order was also changed from the Russian original.

Category:Joseph Brodsky