Reference.com

2,051 results for: part

Displaying 2 best matches. Browse all 2,051 results below.

Part of speech

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia - Cite This Source

part of speech, in traditional English grammar, any one of about eight major classes of words, based on the parts of speech of ancient Greek and Latin. The parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, interjection, preposition, conjunction, and pronoun. Some grammarians add articles, quantifiers, and numerals. These word classes have traditional definitions in grammar books, i.e., "a noun is the name of a person, place, or thing" without reference to grammatical function. By this strict definition the word toy would be a noun in the sentence "The toy is under the tree" and in the sentence "It is a toy dog." However, an alternate method of defining parts of speech is in terms of the structural features and distribution patterns within a sentence. Thus toy would constitute a different part of speech in each of the above sentences since the word functions in different environments in each sentence, i.e., as a subject and as a modifier. Some English parts of speech (nouns, verbs, etc.) are productive classes allowing new members; others, with functional rather than lexical meaning (prepositions, articles, conjunctions) are nonproductive, having a limited number of members. See also inflection.

See L. Bloomfield, Language (1933); C. Fries, The Structure of English (1952); W. N. Francis, The Structure of American English (1958); O. Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar (1965); F. R. Palmer, Grammar (1971); C. L. Baker, English Syntax (1989).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Part

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

The concept of "part" is not easy to define though it is intimately connected to the concept "whole". For the formal study of the parthood relation, see mereology.

Part can also mean:

  • In part (music):

    • A part is the music played by an individual instrument or voice (or group of identical instruments or voices) within a larger work
    • A part in great Highland Bagpipe music is a musical sentence
  • In the performing arts, a part is an actor's role (see Role (performing arts)).
  • In mathematics, a part (mathematics) is any geometric object such as a point, line, arc, circle, polygon, polyhedron, or polytope that can be joined together to form a whole.
  • In engineering, a part is a component used in a higher-level mechanical or electrical assembly. Examples of parts are screws, transistors and other electronic components, a specially shaped piece of metal required by the mechanism of a specific model of video cassette recorder, and a myriad other examples. Parts required to replace broken parts in existing equipment are called spare parts or just spares.
  • In fashion, the part or parting of a person's hair is the "watershed" line at which the hair is divided (often with a comb), and forms part of their hairstyle. Some people part their hair in the middle (a "center part," following the natural part of the hair), and some part their hair at one side or the other.
  • In preparing mixtures, it is customary to specify an undefined amount of a mixture in either parts or percentages. For example the cocktail known as a Martini is described as being made with 5 parts of gin to 1 of vermouth. This terminology can also be used in relation to cement and recipes.
  • In the Hebrew calendar, a part (chelek) is 1/18 of a minute, or 3 1/3 seconds.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 05:35:44 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation

2,048 More from Wikipedia »


All 2,051 results for: part

View results from: Dictionary | Thesaurus | Encyclopedia | All Reference | the Web

Perform a new search, or try your search for "part" at: