Content Words and Function Words

Content Words and Function Words

1.      Content Words(open class words or lexical words or autosemantic words)

Content words are words that can accept new members or can be formed to another kinds of word. Content words are usually added by bound morphemes, both derivational and inflectional morphemes.  content words these include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs, 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, grammars describe the use of function words in detail, but treat lexical words in general terms only.

a.     Noun ,  is used to describe people, places, things, and ideas.

Example : table(noun)+ -s(plural) = tables.

b.    Verb , is the main verb or verb without auxiliaries.

Example : sing(verb) + -er(suffix) = singer(new word).

c.     Adjective , word that describe noun.

Example : happy(adj.) + -ness(suffix) = happiness(new word).

d.    Adverbs , word that describe verb.

Example : Honestly(adv.) + un- (prefix) = unhonestly.

2.      Function Words(close class words or grammatical words)

Function words are words that can not accept new members or can not be formed to another kinds of words. Function words serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence. Function words belong to free morpheme because they can stand alone, have a meaning. Function word include prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, grammatical articles, and particles.

Example :

a.     Preposition : in+ -s = ins X(wrong)

b.    Conjunction : and + -s = ands X(wrong)etc.

So, all function words can not  be added by any derivational or inflectional morphemes and can not form a new word.

Note : There are some words that belong to both content and function words.

Example :

a.       Have

v  I have a book – I am having a book. ( ‘have’ as a verb, content words)

v  I have written a letter. ( ‘have’ as an auxiliary verb, function words)

b.      Can

v  I can speak English. (as auxiliary verb, function words)

v  I have two cans of coke. ( as a noun, content words)

Function words are closed class words while content words are open class words.

Function Words	Examples
Prepositions	of, at, in, without, between
Pronouns	he, they, anybody, it, one
Determiners	the, a, that, my, more, much, either, neither
Conjunctions	and, that, when, while, although, or
Modal verbs	can, must, will, should, ought, need, used
Auxilliary verbs	be (is, am, are), have, got, do
Particles	no, not, nor, as

Content Words	examples
Nouns	John, room, answer, Selby
Adjectives	happy, new, large, grey
Full verbs	search, grow, hold, have
Adverbs	really, completely, very, also, enough
Numerals	one, thousand, first
Interjections	eh, ugh, phew, well
Yes/No answers	yes, no (as answers)

Morph and Allomorph

1.      Morph

Morph is the phonetic realization of a morpheme which study the unit of form, sounds and phonetic symbol. The morphs can be devided into two important classes, lexical and grammatical.

a.       Lexical morph is the morph that denote directly objects actions, qualities and other pieces of real word (ex : table, dog, walk, etc.)

b.      Grammatical morph is the morph that has been modifiying  the meaning of the lexical morphs by adding a certain element to them. (ex : un-, -able, re-, -d, in-, -ent, -ly, -al, -ize, -a-, -tion, anti-, dis-, -ment, -ari-, -an, -ism)

Example :

The word/morpheme disbelieve has a phonetic symbol /dIsbI’li:v/

Dis /dIs/                                       

Believe /bI’li:v/

So, every phonetic symbol of morpheme is called morph.

2. Allomorph

Allomorph is variant form of morpheme about the sounds and phonetic symbols but it doesn’t change the meaning. There are three types of allomorph, phonologically, morphologically and lexically conditioned allomorph.

1. Phonologically conditioned allomorph

The choice of allomorph is predictable on the basis of the pronounciation

• Allomorph of the indefinite article : an (before vowels, ex : an elephant) and a (before consonant, ex : a dog) both of them have meaning one,single.
• Allomorphs of the regular past tense morpheme

a.       /id/ after d,t : hated

b.      /t/ after all other voiceless sounds : picked

c.       /d/ after all other voiced sounds : wedged

• Some allomorph of the negative prefix in-

a.       /im/ before bilabial sounds : impossible

b.      /il/ before consonant /l/ : illegal

c.       /in/ elsewhere : independent

2. Morphologically conditioned allomorph

The choice of allomorph is determined by particular morphemes, not just by their pronounciation, ex : the morpheme –sume in changes to –sumpt- in (consume = consumption)

3. Lexically conditioned allomorph

The choice of allomorph is unpredictable, thus memorized on a word by word basis, ex : ox –plural- oxen, sheep-plural- sheep.

There are examples of allomorph.

Example :

1. Cats /s/

Dogs/z/

Boxes/iz/

2. Disagreement /dis/

Discount /dis/

Disbelieve /dis/

  

3. Loved /d/

Voiced /d/

Walked /t/

Stopped /t/

Kicked /t/

Note : allomorph occur at every morpheme, ex : agree (one morpheme, one allomorph
)

So, allomorph is variant form of a morpheme about the sounds and phonetic symbol but it doesn’t change the meaning. Allomorph has different in pronounciation and spelling according to their condition. It means that allomorph will have different sound, pronounciation or spelling in different condition.