Function word
Encyclopedia
Function words are word
s that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical
relationships with other words within a sentence
, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. They signal the structural relationships that words have to one another and are the glue that holds sentences together. Thus, they serve as important elements to the structures of sentences.
Consider the following sentences (1) and (2):
(1) The winfy prunkilmonger from the glidgement mominkled and brangified all his levensers vederously.
(2) Glop angry investigator larm blonk government harassed gerfritz infuriated sutbor pumrog listeners thoroughly.
In sentence (1) above, the content words have been changed into nonsense syllables but it is not difficult for one to posit that winfy is an adjective
, prunkilmonger, glidgement, levensers as noun
s, mominkled, brangified as verb
s and vederously as an adverb
based on clues like the derivational
and inflectional morphemes. (The clue is in the suffixes: -y indicates adjectives such as "wintery"; -er, -ment and -ers indicates nouns such as "baker", "battlement" and "messengers"; -led and -fied suggests verbs such as "mingled" and "clarified"; and -ly is that of adverbs such as "vigorously"). Hence, even without lexical meaning, the sentence can be said to be rather "meaningful". However, when the reverse is done and the function words are being changed to nonsense syllables as in sentence (2), the result is a totally incomprehensible sentence as the grammatical meaning which is signaled by the structure words is not present. Hence, function words provide the grammatical relationships between the open class
words and helps create meaning in sentences.
Words that are not function words are called content words (or open class words or lexical words or autosemantic words): these include noun
s, verb
s, adjective
s, and most adverb
s, although some adverbs are function words (e.g., then and why). Dictionaries define the specific meanings of content words, but can only describe the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammar
s describe the use of function words in detail, but treat lexical words in general terms only.
Function words might be prepositions, pronoun
s, auxiliary verb
s, conjunction
s, grammatical article
s or particle
s, all of which belong to the group of closed-class words. Interjection
s are sometimes considered function words but they belong to the group of open-class words. Function words might or might not be inflected
or might have affix
es.
Function words belong to the closed class of words in grammar
in that it is very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech, whereas in the open class of words (that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs) new words may be added readily (such as slang
words, technical terms, and adoptions and adaptations of foreign words). See neologism.
Each function word either gives some grammatical information on other words in a sentence or clause
, and cannot be isolated from other words, or it may indicate the speaker's mental model as to what is being said.
Grammatical words, as a class, can have distinct phonological properties from content words. Grammatical words sometimes do not make full use of all the sounds in a language. For example, in some of the Khoisan languages
, most content words begin with clicks
, but very few function words do. In English, only function words begin with voiced th- [ð] (see Pronunciation of English th
).
The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words:
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
s that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
relationships with other words within a sentence
Sentence (linguistics)
In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. They signal the structural relationships that words have to one another and are the glue that holds sentences together. Thus, they serve as important elements to the structures of sentences.
Consider the following sentences (1) and (2):
(1) The winfy prunkilmonger from the glidgement mominkled and brangified all his levensers vederously.
(2) Glop angry investigator larm blonk government harassed gerfritz infuriated sutbor pumrog listeners thoroughly.
In sentence (1) above, the content words have been changed into nonsense syllables but it is not difficult for one to posit that winfy is an adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
, prunkilmonger, glidgement, levensers as noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s, mominkled, brangified as verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s and vederously as an adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
based on clues like the derivational
Derivation (linguistics)
In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
and inflectional morphemes. (The clue is in the suffixes: -y indicates adjectives such as "wintery"; -er, -ment and -ers indicates nouns such as "baker", "battlement" and "messengers"; -led and -fied suggests verbs such as "mingled" and "clarified"; and -ly is that of adverbs such as "vigorously"). Hence, even without lexical meaning, the sentence can be said to be rather "meaningful". However, when the reverse is done and the function words are being changed to nonsense syllables as in sentence (2), the result is a totally incomprehensible sentence as the grammatical meaning which is signaled by the structure words is not present. Hence, function words provide the grammatical relationships between the open class
Open class
Open class may refer to:*Open Class , an event classification*Open class , a word class readily accepting new items*Open class , a standardbred racing event open to all comers...
words and helps create meaning in sentences.
Words that are not function words are called content words (or open class words or lexical words or autosemantic words): these include noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s, verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s, adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, and most adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s, although some adverbs are function words (e.g., then and why). Dictionaries define the specific meanings of content words, but can only describe the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
s describe the use of function words in detail, but treat lexical words in general terms only.
Function words might be prepositions, pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s, auxiliary verb
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
s, conjunction
Grammatical conjunction
In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...
s, grammatical article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
s or particle
Grammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
s, all of which belong to the group of closed-class words. Interjection
Interjection
In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
s are sometimes considered function words but they belong to the group of open-class words. Function words might or might not be inflected
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
or might have affix
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
es.
Function words belong to the closed class of words in grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
in that it is very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech, whereas in the open class of words (that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs) new words may be added readily (such as slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
words, technical terms, and adoptions and adaptations of foreign words). See neologism.
Each function word either gives some grammatical information on other words in a sentence or clause
Clause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
, and cannot be isolated from other words, or it may indicate the speaker's mental model as to what is being said.
Grammatical words, as a class, can have distinct phonological properties from content words. Grammatical words sometimes do not make full use of all the sounds in a language. For example, in some of the Khoisan languages
Khoisan languages
The Khoisan languages are the click languages of Africa which do not belong to other language families. They include languages indigenous to southern and eastern Africa, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion...
, most content words begin with clicks
Click consonant
Clicks are speech sounds found as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa. Examples of these sounds familiar to English speakers are the tsk! tsk! or tut-tut used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the...
, but very few function words do. In English, only function words begin with voiced th- [ð] (see Pronunciation of English th
Pronunciation of English th
In English, the digraph ⟨th⟩ represents in most cases one of two different phonemes: the voiced dental fricative and the voiceless dental fricative...
).
The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words:
- articleArticle (grammar)An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
s — the and a. In some inflected languages, the articles may take on the case of the declensionDeclensionIn linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
of the following noun. - pronounPronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s — inflected in English, as he — him, she — her, etc. - adpositionAdpositionPrepositions are a grammatically distinct class of words whose most central members characteristically express spatial relations or serve to mark various syntactic functions and semantic roles...
s — uninflectedUninflected wordIn the context of linguistic morphology, an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological markers such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or conjugation...
in English - conjunctionGrammatical conjunctionIn grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...
s — uninflected in English - auxiliary verbAuxiliary verbIn linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
s — forming part of the conjugationGrammatical conjugationIn linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
(pattern of the tensesGrammatical tenseA tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
of main verbs), always inflected - interjectionInterjectionIn grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
s — sometimes called "filled pauses", uninflected - particleGrammatical particleIn grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
s — convey the attitude of the speaker and are uninflected, as if, then, well, however, thus, etc. - expletiveSyntactic expletiveSyntactic expletives are words that perform a syntactic role but contribute nothing to meaning. Expletive subjects are part of the grammar of many non-pro-drop languages such as English, whose clauses normally require overt provision of subject even when the subject can be pragmatically inferred...
s — take the place of sentences, among other functions. - pro-sentencePro-sentenceA pro-sentence is a function word or expression that substitutes for a whole sentence whose content is recoverable from the context. Pro-sentences are a kind of pro-forms and are therefore anaphoric....
s — yes, okay, etc.