"Most monosyllabic function words, unlike content words, are unstressed . . ..

Prepositions, conjunctions, and articles are regularly unstressed, and auxiliary verbs andadverbs are usually unstressed--though note that auxiliaries are often used for emphasis, in which case they are stressed: "I did pay the bills." (Derek Attridge, Poetic Rhythm. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995)
Function Words examples of, at, in, without, between he, they, anybody, it, one the, a, that, my, more, much, either, neither and, that, when, while, although, or can, must, will, should, ought, need, used be (is, am, are), have, got, do no, not, nor, as

Prepositions Pronouns Determiners Conjunctions Modal verbs Auxiliary verbs Particles

Content Words Nouns Adjectives Full verbs Adverbs Numerals Interjections Yes/No answers happy, new, large, grey search, grow, hold, have

examples John, room, answer, Selby

really, completely, very, also, enough one, thousand, first eh, ugh, phew, well yes, no (as answers)

-Function words (or grammatical words or synsemantic words or structure-class words) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. They signal the structural relationships that words have to one another and are the glue that holds sentences together. Thus, they serve as important elements to the structures of sentences.
[1]

Consider the following sentences (1) and (2):

(1) The winfy prunkilmonger from the glidgement mominkled and brangified all his levensers vederously. (2) Glop angry investigator larm blonk government harassed gerfritz infuriated sutbor pumrog listeners thoroughly.

In sentence (1) above, the content words have been changed into nonsense syllables but it is not difficult for one to posit that winfy is an adjective, prunkilmonger, glidgement, levensersas nouns, mominkled, brangified as verbs and vederously as an adverb based on clues like the derivational and inflectional morphemes. (The clue is in the suffixes: -y indicates adjectives such as "wintery"; -er, -ment and -ers indicates nouns such as "baker", "battlement" and "messengers"; -led and -fied suggests verbs such as "mingled" and "clarified"; and -ly is that of adverbs such as "vigorously"). Hence, even without lexical meaning, the sentence can be said to be rather "meaningful". However, when the reverse is done and the function words are being changed to nonsense syllables as in sentence (2), the result is a totally incomprehensible sentence as the grammatical meaning which is signaled by the structure words is not present. Hence, function words provide the grammatical relationships between the open class words and helps create meaning in sentences. Words that are not function words are called content words (or open class words or lexical words or autosemantic 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. Function words might be prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, grammatical articles or particles, all of which belong to the group of closed-class words. Interjections are sometimes considered function words but they belong to the group of open-class words. Function words might or might not be inflected or might have affixes. Function words belong to the closed class of words in grammar in that it is very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech, whereas in the open class of words (that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs) new words may be added readily (such as slang words, technical terms, and adoptions and adaptations of foreign words). Seeneologism. Each function word either gives some grammatical information on other words in a sentence or clause, and cannot be isolated from other words, or it may indicate the speaker's mental model as to what is being said. Grammatical words, as a class, can have distinct phonological properties from content words. Grammatical words sometimes do not make full use of all the sounds in a language. For example, in some of the Khoisan languages, most content words begin

with clicks, but very few function words do.[2] In English, only function words begin with voiced th- [] (seePronunciation of English th). The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words:

articles the and a. In some inflected languages, the articles may take on the case of the declension of the following noun. pronouns inflected in English, as he him, she her, etc. adpositions uninflected in English conjunctions uninflected in English auxiliary verbs forming part of the conjugation (pattern of the tenses of main verbs), always inflected interjections sometimes called "filled pauses", uninflected particles convey the attitude of the speaker and are uninflected, as if, then, well, however, thus, etc. expletives take the place of sentences, among other functions. pro-sentences yes, okay, etc. Content word Stop word in computer science

References
1. ^ Klammer , Thomas, Muriel R. Schulz and Angela Della Volpe. (2009). Analyzing English Grammar (6th ed).Longman. 2. ^ Westphal, E.O.J. (1971), "The click languages of Southern and Eastern Africa", in Sebeok, T.A., Current trends in Linguistics, Vol. 7: Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, Berlin: Mouton Function words include determiners, conjunctions, andprepositions. Contrast with content word. "Function words are like thumbtacks. We don't notice thumbtacks; we look at the calendar or the poster they are holding up. If we were to take the tacks away, the calendar and the poster would fall down. Likewise, if we took the function words out of speech, it would be hard to figure out what was going on: took function words speech hard figure going on That is what the previous sentence would look like if we took out all of the function words. . . . "[F]unction words are a closed class. A person cannot easily invent a new preposition or conjunction." (Mark Aronoff and Kirsten Anne Fudeman, What Is Morphology? Wiley-Blackwell, 2005)

"Most people with low self-esteem have earned it." (George Carlin)

"Liberal and conservative have lost their meaning in America. I represent the distracted center." (Jon Stewart)

"Trying is the first step towards failure." (Homer Simpson)

"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." (Mitch Hedberg)

Function Words in Speech "Most monosyllabic function words, unlike content words, are unstressed . . .. Prepositions, conjunctions, and articles are regularly unstressed, and auxiliary verbs andadverbs are usually unstressed--though note that auxiliaries are often used for emphasis, in which case they are stressed: "I did pay the bills." (Derek Attridge, Poetic Rhythm. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995) Also Known As: grammatical word, grammatical functor, grammatical morpheme, function morpheme Function Word Classes Determiners Pronouns Auxiliary Verbs More Function Words Prepositions Particles Conjunctions

1. "The determiner class is one of the structure classes that straddle the line between a word class and a function. On the one hand, our most common determiners, the articles, do indeed constitute a small, closed structure class. At the other end of the spectrum are the possessive nouns, which function as determiners while retaining their membership in the open class 'noun.' In between are the subclasses of

determiners that belong to the closed pronoun class:Demonstrative, possessive, and indefinite pronouns all function as determiners; and, of course, as pronouns they also function as nominals (in fact, 'pronominal' would be a more accurate label than 'pronoun'). "Determiners signal nouns in a variety of ways: They may define the relationship of the noun to the speaker or listener (or reader); they may identify the noun as specific orgeneral; they may quantify it specifically or refer to quantity in general." (Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar, 5th ed. Allyn and Bacon, 1998)

"There's no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting." (David Letterman)

"Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although thecockroach would miss us most." (Joseph Wood Krutch)

"When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, 'Did you sleep good?' I said 'No, I made a fewmistakes.'" (Steven Wright)

Word Order With Multiple Determiners When there is more than one determiner, follow these useful rules: a) Place all and both in front of other determiners. E.g. We ate all the food. Both my sons are at college. b) Place what and such in front of a and an in exclamations. E.g. What an awful day! I've never seen such a crowd! c) Place many, much, more, most, few, little after other determiners. E.g. His many successes made him famous. They have no more food. What littlemoney I have is yours.

2. A pronoun can function as a subject, object, or complement in a sentence. Pronouns are a closed word class in English: new members rarely enter the language. There are several different classes of pronouns:

Demonstrative Pronouns Indefinite Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns Intensive Pronouns Personal Pronouns Possessive Pronouns Reciprocal Pronouns Reflexive Pronouns Relative Pronouns

Examples:

"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon." (Groucho Marx)

Chalmers: Well, Seymour, it seems we've put together a baseball team and I was wondering,who's on first, eh? Skinner: Not the pronoun, but rather a player with the unlikely name of "Who" is on first. Chalmers: Well that's just great, Seymour. We've been out here six seconds and you've already managed to blow the routine. ("Screaming Yellow Honkers," The Simpsons, 1999)

"We rolled all over the floor, in each other's arms, like two huge helpless children. He was naked and goatish under his robe, and I felt suffocated as he rolled over him. We rolled over me. They rolled over him. We rolled over us." (Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita)

"I used to be with it, but then they changed what 'it' was. Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's 'it' seems weird and scary to me." (Abe in "Homerpalooza," The Simpsons)

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together." (John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "I Am the Walrus")

Observations:

Pronouns and Modifiers "Pronouns contrast with nouns. Nouns can take a range of modifiers, such as articlesand adjectives, but

pronouns stand on their own, and (with a handful of exceptions) take no modifiers before them. This is what one would expect from the fact that pronouns stand for whole noun phrases. . . . "The few cases where a pronoun takes a modifier before it, as in Poor you! and little me, are clearly quite exceptional. But pronouns can take modifying phrases after them, as inwe who are about to die, or you at the back, or him with the hat on." (James R. Hurford, Grammar: A Student's Guide. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994)

Forms of Personal Pronouns "English personal pronouns are . . . inflected for number (compare singular I with pluralme) and case (compare nominative I with accusative/dative me and genitive my/mine), though the changes are holistic rather than inflectional. (That is, the entire word changes rather than a suffix simply being added.) In addition, however, such pronouns are inflected for person, which differentiates between first person (the speaker, as expressed by I, me, we, us, my, mine, and our), second person (the addressee, as expressed by you and your), and third person (everyone else, as expressed by he, she, it, they, them, his, her, and their)." (Thomas E. Murray, The Structure of English: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology. Allyn and Bacon, 1995)

Pronouns and Determiners Because there is a considerable overlap between pronouns and determiners, it is important to look closely at the context to distinguish between the two. A determinerprecedes a noun, while a pronoun replaces a noun, noun phrase or noun clause. determiner: That book is worth reading. pronoun: That is worth reading. determiner: Both children are really hard workers. pronoun: Both are really hard workers. (Sara Thorne, Mastering Advanced English Language, 2nd ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

3. The part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. The common conjunctions--and, but, for, or, nor, yet, and so--join the elements of a coordinate structure. A sentence style that employs many coordinate conjunctions is called polysyndeton. A sentence style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses is called asyndeton. In contrast to coordinating conjunctions, which connect words, phrases, and clauses of equal rank, subordinating conjunctions connect clauses of unequal rank. Examples and Observations:

"There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody." (Adlai Stevenson)

"As it happens I am in Death Valley, in a room at the Enterprise Motel and Trailer Park,and it is July, and it is hot. In fact it is 119 degrees. I cannot seem to make the air conditioner work, but there is a small refrigerator, and I can wrap ice cubes in a toweland hold them against the small of my back." (Joan Didion, "On Morality")

"There's a dark side to each and every human soul. We wish we were Obi-Wan Kenobi,and for the most part we are, but there's a little Darth Vadar in all of us." (Chris Stevens, Northern Exposure)

"I have just been refining the room in which I sit,yet I sometimes doubt that a writer should refineor improve his workroom by so much as a dictionary: one thing leads to another and the first thing you know he has a stuffed chair and is fast asleep in it." (E.B. White, "Progress and Change," 1939)

"I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead." (Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, 1934)

Paired Conjunctions (Correlatives) "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." (George Bernard Shaw)

"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy." (Marie Curie)

Polysyndeton in Hemingway "Maybe she would pretend that I was her boy that was killed and we would go in the front door and the porter would take off his cap and I would stop at the concierge's deskand ask for the key and she would stand by the elevator and it would go up very slowly clicking at all the floors and then our floor and the boy would open the door and stand there and she would step out and we would walk down the hall and I would put the key in the door and open it and go in and then take down the telephone and ask them to send a bottle of capri bianca in a silver bucket full of ice and you would hear the ice against the pail coming down the corridor and the boy would knock and I would say leave it outside the door please." (Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms. Scribner's, 1929) "[T]he Hemingway sentence is what makes Hemingway. It's not the bullfights or the safaris or the wars. it's a clear, direct, and vigorous sentence. It's the simple connective--the word 'and' that strings together the segments of a long Hemingway sentence. The word 'and' is more important to Hemingway than Africa or Paris." (Don DeLillo, interview with David Remnick in "Exile on Main Street: Don DeLillo's Undisclosed Underworld." Conversations With Don DeLillo, ed. by Thomas DePietro. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005)

Conjunction Junction Backup singers: Conjunction Junction, what's your function? Main Singer: Hookin' up words and phrases and clauses. Backup singers: Conjunction Junction, how's that function? Main Singer: I've got three favorite cars that get most of my job done. Backup singers: Conjunction Junction, what's their function? Main Singer: I got and, but, and or. They'll get you pretty far. ("Conjunction Junction," Schoolhouse Rock, 1973)

Conjunctions and Style "It is the good or bad Use of Conjunction, that constitutes the Essence of a good or badStile. They render the Discourse more smooth and fluent. They are the helpmates of Reason in arguing, relating and putting the other Parts of Speech in due order." (Daniel Duncan, A New English Grammar, 1731)

"A close reasoner and a good writer in general may be known by his pertinent use ofconnectives. . . . In your modern books, for the most part, the sentences in a page have the same connection with each other that marbles have with a bag; they touch without adhering." (Samuel T. Coleridge, Table Talk, May 15, 1833)