Word Classification
In academic writing, the function of words defines the purposes and meaning that are going to be used. In addition to write a sentence which can be understood easily by the readers, suitable usage of words is important, and one of this is the understanding of words class. As this article is written for my teaching material in educating my classes, this writing offers brief explanation of word class both in English and Bahasa Indonesia.
The word classes in Bahasa is mainly composed of:
- Kata Kerja or Verbal
- Kata Benda or Nomina
- Kata Sifat or Adjektiva
- Kata Keterangan or Adverbia
Whilst, in English, the similarity could be found in verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and preposition. Some learning materials might have included the modals verbs such as would, could, should, may as a group of verb, and the others might have thought them as different classes. Nevertheless, both of these arguments have similar concept, in which they are verbs.
Verb
In defining the verb, this word can be characterised as an action. So, according to the Oxford Online Dictionary,
Verb is a word or group of words that expresses an action (such as eat), an event (such as happen) or a state (such as exist)
From this definition, we could understand that the verb is a form of an expression when somebody or something does an action, event, or state. However, a significant difference between English and Bahasa lies on the presence of "to be verbs" which are used in three features:
- for describing adjectives
- for describing noun
- for describing passive voice
Regular and Irregular Verbs
As it is mentioned earlier that verb is used to describe the action, even, or state with the addition of to be. In English verbs, there are several rules that need to be understood by the user both in the use of speaking or writing. This kind of rule applies to the "time expression", which is popular with the term definite state. Please be notified that, in academic writing such as the preparation of your thesis undergraduate, master or PhD, the definite state plays important role. The examples for regular verbs are mainly indicated by the presence of -d/-ed, such as
Visit becomes into Visited and it changes into Visited;
Create becomes Created and it changes into Created;
Determine becomes Determined and it changes into Determined
Note that, the Visit; Create; Determine are the base words, which can be classified as Verb 1 (Present tense), whereas for the second orders which are Visited-Visited; Created-Created, and Determined-Determined are considered to be Verb 2 (verb past-tenses) and Verb 3 (past participle) respectively.
On the other hand, for the verb irregulars, this means changing form of the verbs. The words such as think, speak, and go are the examples of the irregular verbs, in which respectively they change into thought, spoke, and went for the past verbs. Whilst, the past participle of these words are:
think - thought - thought
speak - spoke - spoken
go - went - gone
Basically, the use of verb-action is important as it expresses the acts that are going to be informed to the readers. The verbs themselves are divided into several types such as transitive verbs, reflexive verbs, delexical verbs, reciprocal verbs, phrasal verbs, compound verbs, and linking verbs.
Adjective
An adjective or in Bahasa "kata sifat" is a word that is used to express a characteristic of somebody or something. This definition applies to Bahas which is commonly used to provide certain characteristics for the noun. However, the main differences could be found in the placement, for instance in Bahasa, the position of adjective is placed after the noun, such as big, informal, or yellow. Although the use of adjectives is in describing the noun, it can be used as modifiers of a noun, in which they can change the characteristic of nouns. Have a look of the example below:
The yellow car is made as a new product from the popular brand
Note that the word yellow, new, and popular are used to describe the condition of the car, product, and brand respectively. Furthermore, the yellow word for instance, modifies the word car into a car with a yellow colour. Be aware that, the use of adjectives is not affected by the number of the noun, in which whether it is singular or plural, no -s/-es is used, such as the following example:
The two yellow cars are released in addition to improve the popularity of the company.
The adjectives have different types, and they are qualitative adjectives, classifying adjectives, colour adjectives, feeling adjectives, -ing/ -ed adjectives, and compound adjectives.
Noun
The last class of word in this article is the word "noun" or in Bahasa is "kata benda". The word noun is mainly used to indicate the subject or object in a sentence, or to inform the readers about a person, city, location, or places. In Oxford Dictionary, a noun is defined as:
A word that refers to a person (such as Budi or student), a place (such as Jakarta or town), or a thing, a quality or an activity (such as plant, sorrow or tennis)
In English language, the noun is divided into:
- Common noun
- Proper noun
- Concrete noun
- Abstract noun
- Collective noun
- Countable and uncountable nouns
Of course, the use of every noun from these 1-6 types have rules that must be followed, particularly in term of plurality and singularity. Have a look an examples:
Anger is the beginning source of a regret
This is an abstract noun, while for the countable and uncountable nouns are:
My mother baked me a slice of bread
These are the three fundamental of word classes. The understanding of these three words may lead us to formulate a sensical sentence which can be understood easily by the readers. In term of academic writing, exact, clear, and direct sentences are indicated by the proper use of verbs, adjectives and nouns.
