Words can be divided into two basic classes: (1) lexical ...



Function Word Info

~ Compiled from: ; en.; ; speech.psychol.ucl.ac.uk

Words can be divided into two basic classes: (1) lexical or open class words and (2) function or closed class words. Nouns (e.g., dog, house), verbs (e.g., to go, to see), and adjectives (e.g., green, nice) supply the majority of the meaning in a sentence and belong to the lexical class. This class is called “open,” because languages can add new words to this set. In contrast, function words. These words are referred to as “functional” words, because they carry little meaning (have no synonyms) and typically “help” another word. There are only about 300 in English. Determiners, for instance, add grammatical information about specificity and definiteness (the dog vs. a dog), but do not essentially alter the meaning. They are also called “closed class words,” since languages do not add new words to the set. Lexical words typically carry intonational emphasis or stress, while function words are generally unstressed. Therefore function words are prone to contraction (e.g., the auxiliary have in I've seen it.)

A list of the type of words most often included in the category of function words:

• determiners - used as noun modifiers and that serve to alter the referents of noun phrases; often divided into articles (a, an, the), determiners (both, neither, whichever), and quantifiers (much, various, little)

• pronouns - words employed in place of nouns or noun phrases (e.g., he, they, anybody, it, one, why)

• prepositions - combine with nouns, pronouns, or noun phrases to form prepositional phrases (e.g., of, at, in, without, between)

• conjunctions – serve to conjoin words, clauses, phrases, or sentences (e.g., and, that, when, while, although, or)

• auxiliary verbs – function is to characterize the main verbs they accompany in tense or modality (e.g., be, is, am, are, have, got, do, can)

• degree adverbs – very, too

|determiners |pronouns |prepositions |conjunctions |auxiliary verbs |degree adverbs |

|A |All |About |Accordingly |Am |All |

|All |Another |Above |After |Are |Another |

|An |Any |According to |Albeit |Be |Any |

|Another |Anybody |Across |Although |Been |Both |

|Any |Anyone |After |And |Being |Certain |

|Both |Anything |Against |As |Can |Each |

|Each |Both |Ahead |Because |Could |Either |

|Either |Each |Along |Before |Did |Enough |

|Every |Each other |Among |Both |Do |Few |

|Her |Either |Around |But |Does |Less |

|His |Everybody |As |Consequently |Had |Little |

|Its |Everyone |As of |Either |Has |Manu |

|My |Everything |As to |For |Have |More |

|Neither |Few |At |Hence |Is |Most |

|No |He |Away from |However |May |Much |

|Other |Her |Because of |If |Might |Neither |

|Our |Hers |Before |Neither |Must |No |

|Per |Herself |Behind |Nevertheless |Need to |None |

|Some |Him |Below |Nor |Ought |One, etc. |

|That |Himself |Beneath |Once |Shall |Part |

|The |His |Beside |Or |Should |Several |

|Their |I |Between |Since |Will |Some |

|These |It |Beyond |So |Would | |

|This |Its |But |Than | | |

|Those |Itself |By |That | | |

|Whatever |Many |Down |Then | | |

|Whichever |Me |Due to |Therefore | | |

|Your |Mine |During |Though | | |

| |Myself |Except |Thus | | |

| |Neither |For |Till | | |

| |No one |From |Unless | | |

| |Nobody |In |Until | | |

| |None |Including |When | | |

| |Nothing |Inside |Whenever | | |

| |One |Instead of |Where | | |

| |One another |Into |Whereas | | |

| |Other |Less |Wherever | | |

| |Ours |Like |Whether | | |

| |Ourselves |Near |While | | |

| |Several |Of |Yet | | |

| |She |Off | | | |

| |Some |On | | | |

| |Somebody |Onto | | | |

| |Someone |Other than | | | |

| |Something |Out | | | |

| |Such |Outside | | | |

| |That |Over | | | |

| |Theirs |Per | | | |

| |Them |Plus | | | |

| |Themselves |Since | | | |

| |These |Than | | | |

| |They |Through | | | |

| |Those |Throughout | | | |

| |Us |Thru | | | |

| |We |Till | | | |

| |What |To | | | |

| |Whatever |Toward | | | |

| |Which |Under | | | |

| |Whichever |Underneath | | | |

| |Who |Unlike | | | |

| |Whoever |Until | | | |

| |Whom |Unto | | | |

| |Whomever |Up | | | |

| |Whose |Upon | | | |

| |You |Wanting | | | |

| |Yours |With | | | |

| |Yourself |Within | | | |

| |yourselves |without | | | |

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