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Where do I start? At first, there are literally tons of research on this topic (some call them parts of speech, others call them word classes). I don't know how much time you're willing to spend on reading or how linguistically well-trained you are.

To be on the safe side, I strongly recommend to start with an excellent review article by Walter Bisang, Word Classes, In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology, ed. J. J. Sung, pp. 280-302. Oxford: OUP, 2010. If you can't find the book, the draft version (without tables) is available here

Main points summarized here:

1. The inadequacy of purely semantic/notional definitions.
2. Four prerequisites for distinguishing word classes (you need all four of them):

- semantic criteria:

Sasse 1993: nouns are thing-like concepts, verbs are event-like concepts;

Langacker 1987: nouns are static and holistic, verbs are dynamic;

Givon 1979: nouns represent ontological categories that are stable in time, unlike verbs (very time-unstable).

Wierzbicka 2000, Dixon 2004: there are certain semantic types that are always associated with nouns or verbs only, e.g. PEOPLE, PARTS, FLORA etc. are always nouns, whereas MOTION, SPEAKING are always verbs.

Croft 2000: nouns refer to objects, verbs express predication of an action etc.

- pragmatic criteria/criteria of discourse functions:

Nouns introduce participants, verbs assert the occurrence of an event.

- formal criteria:

Nouns and verbs have different morphological and syntactic distribution. They may also differ in their phonological form.

- distinction between lexical and syntactic levels of analysis:

lexical (paradigmatic) vs. syntactic (syntagmatic) levels.

He also talks about approaches to word classes proposed by Schachter 1985, Hengeveld 1992, Croft (in a series of works). There is a special section devoted to the noun/verb distinction (section 5). There is a nice conclusion there, where he cites three criteria (from Evans and Osada 2005) which a language lacking a noun/verb distinction must meet:

• compositionality;
• bidirectionality;
• exhaustiveness.

Where do I start? At first, there are literally tons of research on this topic (some call them parts of speech, others call them word classes). I don't know how much time you're willing to spend on reading or how linguistically well-trained you are.

To be on the safe side, I strongly recommend to start with an excellent review article by Walter Bisang, Word Classes, In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology, ed. J. J. Sung, pp. 280-302. Oxford: OUP, 2010.

Main points summarized here:

1. The inadequacy of purely semantic/notional definitions.
2. Four prerequisites for distinguishing word classes (you need all four of them):

- semantic criteria:

Sasse 1993: nouns are thing-like concepts, verbs are event-like concepts;

Langacker 1987: nouns are static and holistic, verbs are dynamic;

Givon 1979: nouns represent ontological categories that are stable in time, unlike verbs (very time-unstable).

Wierzbicka 2000, Dixon 2004: there are certain semantic types that are always associated with nouns or verbs only, e.g. PEOPLE, PARTS, FLORA etc. are always nouns, whereas MOTION, SPEAKING are always verbs.

Croft 2000: nouns refer to objects, verbs express predication of an action etc.

- pragmatic criteria/criteria of discourse functions:

Nouns introduce participants, verbs assert the occurrence of an event.

- formal criteria:

Nouns and verbs have different morphological and syntactic distribution. They may also differ in their phonological form.

- distinction between lexical and syntactic levels of analysis:

lexical (paradigmatic) vs. syntactic (syntagmatic) levels.

He also talks about approaches to word classes proposed by Schachter 1985, Hengeveld 1992, Croft (in a series of works). There is a special section devoted to the noun/verb distinction (section 5). There is a nice conclusion there, where he cites three criteria (from Evans and Osada 2005) which a language lacking a noun/verb distinction must meet:

• compositionality;
• bidirectionality;
• exhaustiveness.

Where do I start? At first, there are literally tons of research on this topic (some call them parts of speech, others call them word classes). I don't know how much time you're willing to spend on reading or how linguistically well-trained you are.

To be on the safe side, I strongly recommend to start with an excellent review article by Walter Bisang, Word Classes, In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology, ed. J. J. Sung, pp. 280-302. Oxford: OUP, 2010. If you can't find the book, the draft version (without tables) is available here

Main points summarized here:

1. The inadequacy of purely semantic/notional definitions.
2. Four prerequisites for distinguishing word classes:

- semantic criteria:

Sasse 1993: nouns are thing-like concepts, verbs are event-like concepts;

Langacker 1987: nouns are static and holistic, verbs are dynamic;

Wierzbicka 2000, Dixon 2004: there are certain semantic types that are always associated with nouns or verbs only, e.g. PEOPLE, PARTS, FLORA etc. are always nouns, whereas MOTION, SPEAKING are always verbs.

Croft 2000: nouns refer to objects, verbs express predication of an action etc.

- pragmatic criteria/criteria of discourse functions:

Nouns introduce participants, verbs assert the occurrence of an event.

- formal criteria:

Nouns and verbs have different morphological and syntactic distribution. They may also differ in their phonological form.

- distinction between lexical and syntactic levels of analysis:

lexical (paradigmatic) vs. syntactic (syntagmatic) levels.

He also talks about approaches to word classes proposed by Schachter 1985, Hengeveld 1992, Croft (in a series of works). There is a special section devoted to the noun/verb distinction (section 5). There is a nice conclusion there, where he cites three criteria (from Evans and Osada 2005) which a language lacking a noun/verb distinction must meet:

• compositionality;
• bidirectionality;
• exhaustiveness.

Where do I start? At first, there are literally tons of research on this topic (some call them parts of speech, others call them word classes). I don't know how much time you're willing to spend on reading or how linguistically well-trained you are.

To be on the safe side, I strongly recommend to start with an excellent review article by Walter Bisang, Word Classes, In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology, ed. J. J. Sung, pp. 280-302. Oxford: OUP, 2010. If you can't find the book, the draft version (without tables) is available here

Main points summarized here:

1. The inadequacy of purely semantic/notional definitions.
2. Four prerequisites for distinguishing word classes (you need all four of them):

- semantic criteria:

Sasse 1993: nouns are thing-like concepts, verbs are event-like concepts;

Langacker 1987: nouns are static and holistic, verbs are dynamic;

Givon 1979: nouns represent ontological categories that are stable in time, unlike verbs (very time-unstable).

Wierzbicka 2000, Dixon 2004: there are certain semantic types that are always associated with nouns or verbs only, e.g. PEOPLE, PARTS, FLORA etc. are always nouns, whereas MOTION, SPEAKING are always verbs.

Croft 2000: nouns refer to objects, verbs express predication of an action etc.

- pragmatic criteria/criteria of discourse functions:

Nouns introduce participants, verbs assert the occurrence of an event.

- formal criteria:

Nouns and verbs have different morphological and syntactic distribution. They may also differ in their phonological form.

- distinction between lexical and syntactic levels of analysis:

lexical (paradigmatic) vs. syntactic (syntagmatic) levels.

He also talks about approaches to word classes proposed by Schachter 1985, Hengeveld 1992, Croft (in a series of works). There is a special section devoted to the noun/verb distinction (section 5). There is a nice conclusion there, where he cites three criteria (from Evans and Osada 2005) which a language lacking a noun/verb distinction must meet:

• compositionality;
• bidirectionality;
• exhaustiveness.

Where do I start? At first, there are literally tons of research on this topic (some call them parts of speech, others call them word classes). I don't know how much time you're willing to spend on reading or how linguistically well-trained you are.

To be on the safe side, I strongly recommend to start with an excellent review article by Walter Bisang, Word Classes, In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology, ed. J. J. Sung, pp. 280-302. Oxford: OUP, 2010. If you can't find the book, the draft version (without tables) is available here

Main points summarized here:

1. The inadequacy of purely semantic/notional definitions.
2. Four prerequisites for distinguishing word classes:
   • semantic criteria;
   • pragmatic criteria/criteria of discourse functions;
   • formal criteria;
   • distinction between lexical and syntactic levels of analysis.

He also talks about approaches to word classes proposed by Schachter 1985, Hengeveld 1992, Croft (in a series of works). There is a special section devoted to the noun/verb distinction (section 5). There is a nice conclusion there, where he cites three criteria (from Evans and Osada 2005) which a language lacking a noun/verb distinction must meet:

• compositionality;
• bidirectionality;
• exhaustiveness.

Where do I start? At first, there are literally tons of research on this topic (some call them parts of speech, others call them word classes). I don't know how much time you're willing to spend on reading or how linguistically well-trained you are.

To be on the safe side, I strongly recommend to start with an excellent review article by Walter Bisang, Word Classes, In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology, ed. J. J. Sung, pp. 280-302. Oxford: OUP, 2010. If you can't find the book, the draft version (without tables) is available here

Main points summarized here:

1. The inadequacy of purely semantic/notional definitions.
2. Four prerequisites for distinguishing word classes:

- semantic criteria:

Sasse 1993: nouns are thing-like concepts, verbs are event-like concepts;

Langacker 1987: nouns are static and holistic, verbs are dynamic;

Wierzbicka 2000, Dixon 2004: there are certain semantic types that are always associated with nouns or verbs only, e.g. PEOPLE, PARTS, FLORA etc. are always nouns, whereas MOTION, SPEAKING are always verbs.

Croft 2000: nouns refer to objects, verbs express predication of an action etc.

- pragmatic criteria/criteria of discourse functions:

Nouns introduce participants, verbs assert the occurrence of an event.

- formal criteria:

Nouns and verbs have different morphological and syntactic distribution. They may also differ in their phonological form.

- distinction between lexical and syntactic levels of analysis:

lexical (paradigmatic) vs. syntactic (syntagmatic) levels.

He also talks about approaches to word classes proposed by Schachter 1985, Hengeveld 1992, Croft (in a series of works). There is a special section devoted to the noun/verb distinction (section 5). There is a nice conclusion there, where he cites three criteria (from Evans and Osada 2005) which a language lacking a noun/verb distinction must meet:

• compositionality;
• bidirectionality;
• exhaustiveness.