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This paper intends to bring to light, unravel and interpret some of the ideas of Rudolf Lenz (1920) concerning verbal categorization in historiographical perspective. As a starting point, we examine Lenz's position with regard to the sentence as a fundamental linguistic unit and as a framework in which the relationships between its components take place. The work subsequently focuses on verbal categories (parts of speech or word classes) and analyzes in an interpretative and critical perspective the three alternative and complementary systems of verbal categories proposed by Lenz applying alternative defining criteria: formal, logico-semantical and functional, the latter being prioritary for Lenz. Finally, it presents a summary of the three systems of Lenz confronted with each other and with the system of ten parts of speech in traditional grammar, and it assesses Lenz's significant contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]