Uncertainty as a function of grammatical class size

The results of this study strongly suggest that the parts of speech system in traditional grammar may serve an important function in the human coding process. A significant and positive correlation was found between coder's uncertainty for specific parts of speech in a coding task and the number of word types available for their selection in each part of speech class. This finding suggests that the parts of speech system, rather than being an arbitrary classification system imposed on language students by grammarians, may function as a type of preverbal filter system in the encoding process of translating ideas into verbal messages.