Function words, also known as functors, are words that add grammatical information and reveal structural relationships between words in a sentence. Prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs are examples of function words. Content words, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives, have specific lexical meanings. Function words are part of the closed class, while content words are part of the open class. In some languages, function words are more numerous and often contracted. The traditional framework of function words as only additions to sentence structure has shifted, with function words now seen as determinants of categorical status. Content words and function words form a continuum, with some words sharing characteristics of both.
A function word is a word with no lexical meaning or semantic content by itself that mainly adds grammatical information. Also known as a functor, form word, or structure class word, this type of word reveals the structural relationships between words in a sentence. Prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary verbs can all be function words and are considered important linguistic building blocks. Unlike function words, content words have specific lexical meanings.
In English, among other languages, a function word has little meaning and is usually defined by its grammatical relationship to another word. Nouns like “dog,” adjectives like “green,” and verbs like “run” generally provide most of the meaning in a sentence. They are part of the open class of words because languages can easily add or remove words from this group. For example, many new English vocabulary words such as “fax”, “website” and “email” are part of the open class.
In contrast, function words are part of the closed class because languages typically do not add anything new to this group or borrow these words from other languages. Auxiliary words like “might” and “have,” conjunctions like “se” and “that,” and some adverbs, including “too” and “very,” are all function words in English. A function word adds grammatical information rather than meaning to a sentence. For example, a function word such as “the” when paired with the noun “dog” to form “the dog” can add grammatical information but does not change the meaning of the noun.
Traditionally, open-class words were assumed to determine sentence structure while a function word was seen as only an addition. For example, a sentence like “The bear will see the honey” has been split into a noun sentence (“the bear”) and a verb sentence (“he will see the honey”). The function word “the” was considered only an addition to the noun phrase.
This traditional framework shifted in the mid-1980s, when function words began to be understood as determinants of categorical status. Thus the noun phrase “the bear” was interpreted as a determiner phrase (“the”) which contained a noun phrase (“bear”). Determiners such as the function word “the” have become heads of determiner sentences rather than just part of a noun phrase.
Some languages, such as Mandarin, are characterized by a profusion of function words. Function words are usually unstressed, and so speakers often contract them in cases such as using “ho” for “ho.” Children have a tendency to drop function words from their speech.
Content words include nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and have explicable lexical meaning. Unlike function words, content words are described based on their specific meanings rather than their syntactic or grammatical functions. The words function and content should be seen as forming a continuum rather than two different categories because some words, such as the English preposition ‘behind’, share characteristics of both.
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