Content and function words

English Morphology

1. Content and function words P rof.ª Esp. Ana Lourdes Pereira

2. TYPE OF WORDS

3. CONTENT WORDS Content words  are words that have  meaning.   Lexical word Open-class word While nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are the most important content words, there are a few other words that are also key to understanding. These include negatives like no, not and never; demonstrative pronouns including this, that, these and those; and question words like what, where, when, how and why. Grammatical Class Example Nouns House , computer , lake Verbs Enjoy , buy , visit , understand Adjective Heavy, difficult , fast Adverbs Slowly , carefully , often

4. FUNCTION WORDS Little semantic content of its own. Indicates a grammatical relationship. Closed-class word Such as preposition, conjunction or article Grammatical Class Example Articles The, a, an Pronouns He, him , she , her , they , them Conjunctions And , that , while , when , altough Modal verbs Can , must, will , should , ought Auxiliary verbs Be, have , got Prepositions Of , at , in, without , under

5. * minimal word constraint : a lexical word cannot be shorter than two moras : either a heavy syllable, that is, either a syllable with a long vowel , or a closed syllable; or two light syllables CONTENT WORDS FUNCTION WORDS PROVIDE MEANING PROVIDE STRUCTURE ADD AFFIXES TO CHANGE MEANING DO NOT CHANGE FORM OR MEANING (BUT PERSONAL PRONOUNS) IDENTIFIABLE THROUGH SIGNAL WORDS ARE OFTEN SIGNAL WORDS THEMSELVES ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS AS LANGUAGE CHANGES NO ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS OPEN-CLASS WORDS CLOSED-CLASS WORDS OBBEY THE MINIMAL WORD CONSTRAINT* THERE ARE WORDS HERE THAT DO NOT OBBEY MINIMAL WORD CONSTRAINT*

6. Stressed words Carry the meaning or the sense behind a sentence . They carry the content of the sentence . Stress is always related to meaning stressed words = content words Unstressed words Tend to be smaller words Have more of a grammatical significance They help the sentence function syntactically unstressed words = function words 20/04/2021

7. CAN WE DRAW A SHARP LINE BETWEEN CONTENT AND FUNCTION WORDS? No. BIG QUESTION

8. I HAVE COME TO SEE YOU HAVE = FUNCTION WORD = AUXILIARY VERB I HAVE THREE APPLES HAVE = CONTENT WORD = FULL VERB

9. ONE HAS ONE’S PRINCIPLES ONE = FUNCTION WORD = PRONOUN I HAVE ONE APPLE ONE = CONTENT WORD = NUMERAL

10. I HAVE NO MORE MONEY NO = FUNCTION WORD = NEGATIVE PARTICLE NO, I AM NOT COMING. NO = CONTENT WORD = YES/NO ANSWER

11. grab pen and paper We’re about to answer some exercises ! LET’S PRACTICE!

12. MARY HAS LIVED IN ENGLAND FOR TEN YEARS MARY= HAS= LIVED= IN= ENGLAND= FOR= TEN= YEARS= I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS CHAPTER I= DON’T= UNDERSTAND= THIS= CHAPTER= CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT FUNCTION FUNCTION FUNCTION PRONOUN AUX. VERB FULL VERB PREPOSITION NOUN PREPOSITION NUMERAL NOUN CONTENT FUNCTION CONTENT FUNCTION CONTENT PRONOUN AUX VERB FULL VERB DETERMINER NOUN

13. I AM TALKING TO THE CLEVER STUDENTS I= AM= TALKING= TO= THE= CLEVER= STUDENTS= JOHN HAD EATEN LUNCH BEFORE HIS FRIEND ARRIVED. JOHN= HAD= EATEN= LUNCH= BEFORE= HIS= FRIEND= ARRIVED=