The function/content distinction

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This article/section is a stub — probably a pile of half-sorted notes and is probably a first version, is not well-checked, so may have incorrect bits. (Feel free to ignore, or tell me)

In linguistics, and mostly applied to words (perhaps because they are the most pliable among the (near-)surface forms)...


Function words have little or no lexical meaning, and are instead used for grammatical assistance.

Part-of-speech-wise, they tend to be small, closed classes, often mainly prepositions, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, pronouns, articles, particles, expletives, pro-sentences, and such.


Content words (sometimes 'lexical words') are those with lexical meaning, including nouns, adjectives, verbs, and most adverbs (some adverbs can be both).


Function words are a mostly closed class. Content words are an open class probably better seen as part of morphology - as content morphemes, as in derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes (see derivational morphology and inflectional morphology).


See also