All words in Russian are grouped according to certain criteria. Morphology is the study of words as parts of speech. In the article, we will consider in more detail the changeable and unchangeable parts of speech.
Definition and features
A part of speech is a group of words that have the same morphological and syntactic features. As a rule, in all world languages, a name, denoting something related to an object, and a verb, denoting an action, are opposed.
The main condition for defining words into one part of speech is that they have a common grammatical meaning. So, for nouns, the common grammatical meaning will be the meaning of the object (window, sky, person). For an adjective - a sign of an object (white, tall, kind). For the verb - the meaning of the action (open, look, walk). Common morphological features for each part of speech are gender, case, number, person, declension, tense, conjugation or immutability. Words that are part of the same part of speech play the same role in the phrase (is the main or dependent) and the sentence (is the main or secondary member of the sentence), i.e., they have the same syntactic features.
Independent(significant) and auxiliary
Parts of speech in Russian are divided into independent (significant) and auxiliary.
Independent parts of speech in Russian are words denoting objects, their signs and actions. It is possible to ask a question to them, and in the proposal they are its members. The following independent parts of speech in Russian are distinguished:
- a noun that answers the question "Who?", "What?" (child, house);
- a verb that answers the question "What to do?", "What to do?" (educate, build);
- an adjective that answers the question "Which?", "Whose?" (small, cat);
- a numeral that answers the question "How much?", "Which?" (seven, seven, seventh);
- an adverb that answers the question "How?", "When?", "Where?" etc. (fast, today, far);
- a pronoun that answers the question "Who?", "Which one?", "How much?", "How?" etc. (he, such, so much, so)
- participle answering the question "Which one?", "What does he do?", "What did he do?" (playing, lifting)
- gerund that answers the question "How?", "What are you doing?", "What are you doing?" (drawing, destroying).
It is worth noting that a certain group of scientists consider participles and participles to be special forms of the verb and do not distinguish them as a separate part of speech.
Unlike independent parts of speech, service words cannot name an object, sign or action, but can only designate the relationship between them. It is impossible to ask themquestion, and they cannot be part of the proposal. With their help, independent words are connected to each other in phrases and sentences. The service parts of speech are the preposition (from, to, from, etc.), the union (and, but, if, since, etc.), the particle (whether, would, not, even, etc.).
Interjections play a special role. They are intended to express human feelings and emotions (eh, ah, oh, etc.) and at the same time cannot name objects, signs and actions or indicate the relationship between them.
Variable and invariable parts of speech
Some words of the Russian language change, others are unchanged. Words that can change have several forms. For example, cow - cow - cows, white - white - white, read - read - read, etc. When the form changes, its grammatical meaning changes, but the lexical meaning remains unchanged. The following means are used to form word forms: ending (brother - to brother, green - green, write - wrote), ending with a preposition (to brother, with brother, about brother), suffix (write - wrote, beautiful - more beautiful), auxiliary words (to write - I will write, I would write, let him write, the strong - the stronger, the strongest).
Invariable independent parts of speech include all service words, interjections.
Adverb and state words
An adverb is a significant unchangeable part of speech expressing a sign of action (to stand close, to fly high) or a sign of another sign (far looking, very cold). Adverbs cannotconjugate or decline and, accordingly, do not have an ending. However, some may have several degrees of comparison (good - better - best). Adverbs are distinguished by meaning:
- mode of action (how? in what way?): fun, loud, foursome;
- measures and degrees (to what extent? to what extent? to what extent?): absolutely, very, twice;
- places (where? where? Where?) on the right, back, in the distance;
- time (when? how long?): today, early, summer, long;
- reasons (why? why?): accidentally, accidentally;
- goals (why? for what?): out of spite, for show.
Adverbs in a sentence usually play the role of circumstance (The boy quickly ran across the road.). Also, adverbs can be part of a compound predicate (Waiting for the train was boring.). Quite rarely, adverbs can be inconsistent definition (We were expected to walk light.).
Some scholars distinguish the words of state (light, crowded, hot, sad, cold) into a separate unchangeable part of speech.
Gerential participle
The participle is a part of speech that does not change, expresses an additional action in relation to the predicate and combines the features of both the verb and the adverb. From the verb, it inherited the following features:
- view: perfect/imperfect (passing, passing);
- transitivity (crossing the road after watching a movie);
- recurrence (looking closely - looking closely, putting on shoes - putting on shoes);
- the ability to be determined by the adverb (quickly running away, shouting cheerfully).
Indefinable nouns and adjectives
Invariable parts of speech also include some indeclinable nouns and adjectives.
Such words have no word forms and are devoid of endings. Among indeclinable nouns, there are:
- foreign proper and common nouns that end in a vowel (Dumas, coffee, Tokyo, piano, etc.);
- foreign female names that end in a consonant (Miss, Marilyn, etc.);
- surnames of Ukrainian origin ending in -ko (Pavlenko, Derevianko);
- some Russian surnames (Thin, Borzoi, Zhuk, etc.);
- abbreviations and compound words ending in a vowel (CIS, SPbU, transenergo, etc.).
Invariable adjectives are divided by meaning into:
- names of languages (Hindi);
- designation of nationalities (Khanty, Mansi);
- names of styles (rococo, baroque);
- designation of clothing styles (flared, mini, maxi);
- designation of varieties (cappuccino, espresso);
- color designations (indigo, burgundy, beige);
- other specifying signs (luxury, net, gross).
To understand which part of speech is invariable, it is necessary to analyze the behavior of each in different contexts, not having word forms will be invariable.
