04/08/2026
GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS
STRUCTURALLY POLYSEMYMOUS ENGLISH LEXICAL CLASSES AND THEIR CONTEXTUAL EXAMPLES
In English grammar, there are words which have multi-syntactic structural uses. These words are grammatically considered as polysemys or multi-functional lexico-syntactic items in English expressions. However, we shall be looking at some of these lexical items in this lesson.
BACK (NOUN)
1. My back hurts painfully.
2. We sat at the back of the classroom.
BACK (VERB)
1. I back your decision to go to school.
2. I back down whenever I sense a danger.
BACK(ADJECTIVE)
1. Please, go through the back door.
2. I always feel a back pain.
BACK(ADVERB)
1. I told her to come back.
2. We were instructed to pull back.
FAST(NOUN)
1. We observed fast and prayers yesterday.
2. The pastor had a dry fast for thirty days.
FAST(VERB)
1. I fast every Tuesday.
2. The pastor fasted for thirty days.
FAST(ADJECTIVE)
1. Toyota Camry is a fast car.
2. Ronaldo is a fast athlete.
FAST(ADVERB)
1. The man drove the car fast.
2. The Spanish translator spoke fast.
SLOW(ADJECTIVE)
1. He is a slow learner.
2. The child is too slow for my liking.
SLOW(VERB)
1. You have to slow down the pace.
2. Sales slowed down recently owing economic downward spiralling.
SLOW(ADVERB)
1. The clock is running slow.
2. I want to dance with you nice and slow.
PEAK(NOUN)
1. The climbers reached the peak after 12 hours of climbing.
2. The stock market reached a peak in December 1974.
PEAK(VERB)
1. The Roman Empire peaked in the first century.
2. The anomie and decay among the youth peak recently.
PEAK(ADJECTIVE)
1. Knowing the obscure 21st-century slangs is peak nerd.
2. That movie last night was so peak.
PRIDE(NOUN)
1. His pride is inherited.
2. She is the pride of her family.
PRIDE ON(VERB)
1. He prides himself on being the most successful footballer in history.
2. The queen prides herself on being a sagacious judge of character
NOTA BENE:
The above lexical items are few among the inexhaustible lists of polysemous grammatical classes. This lesson attempts to build our accuracy in the deft use of a word in multiple linguistic contexts.
From
Lengthy Library