CONTENT AND FUNCTION WORDS
Before we go on with the discussion of these rules, we should distinguish between two major groups of words: content words and function words. Content words are distinguished from function words by the fact that they carry the encyclopedic information contained in the sentence. In other words, content words have their own independent meanings and can be used independently. They can refer to things, states, qualities, or actions in the outside world. They have their own referents. Function words, by way of contrast, do not refer. They do not have independent encyclopedic meanings and can only be used in connection to content words. They usually signal grammatical relationships among content words in the sentence. Content words include:
• (most) principle verbs (e.g. visit, construct)
• Nouns (e.g. kitchen, Peter)
• Adjectives (e.g. beautiful, interesting)
• Adverbs (e.g. often, carefully)
Function words include:
• Determiners (e.g. the, a, some, a few)
• Auxiliary verbs (e.g. don't, am, can, were)
• Prepositions (e.g. before, next to, opposite)
• Conjunctions (e.g. but, while, as)
• Pronouns (e.g. they, she, us)
