Function Words (the Closed Class of Words)
Cornelia C. Paraskevas · 2020
Words are classified into two groups—content words and function words—based on morphological endings and/or syntactic criteria (position). This chapter considers function words that belong to the closed class of words having fixed membership. Function words do not change their form by adding affixes—in other words, their form remains unchanged. They are not critical for meaning: rather, they provide grammatical information to the units they are closely connected to. In English, there are three types of auxiliary verbs: primary auxiliary verbs, modal auxiliary verbs and marginal auxiliary verbs. They must be followed by a lexical verb that indicates a process/event. The category of determiners consists of multiple members, all of which serve to specify a noun; in other words, determiners always precede nouns. Conjunctions link (join) constructions together. In English, there are three different types of conjunctions—coordinating, subordinating, and adverbial. Pronouns—the most common class in speech—are words which replace noun phrases.