The main functions of the word

The
object of Lexicology is
a word and word-combinations or word-groups. When we study Lexicology
we should research the word and word-combinations in different sides,
for example, its origin, meaning or semantics, development,
multilevel structure.

As the main
object a word has many functions. The term “word”
denotes
the main lexical unit of a language resulting from the association of
a group of sounds with a meaning. It is the smallest unit of a
language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

A word
is a language unit has a particular sound complex, has a particular
meaning, is capable of a particular grammatical employment and able
to form a sentence by itself.

A word
is a unit of speech which serves the purposes of human communication.

The
definition of a word is one of the most difficult in linguistics
because the simplest word has many different aspects. Being the
central element of any language system the
word
is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax,
morphology and also for some other sciences that have to deal with
language and speech, such as philosophy, psychology and probably
quite a few other branches of knowledge. Any definition that was
given to word is conditioned by the aims and interests of its author.

The complete
correct definition of the
word is
a speech unit used for the purposes of communication, materially
representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, belong to
grammatical employment and characterised by formal and semantic
unity.

The modern approach to word
studies is based on distinguishing between the external and internal
structures of the word.

On Lexicology course we analyze
the word according to three structures: the morphological, semantic,
stylistic. There are several linguistic functions of a word:
nominative, significative (polysemantic), expressive, communicative,
descriptive, pragmatic.

34. Give the aims and objectives of Lexicology.

Lexicology
(from Greek origin lexis – “word” and logos – “science”)
is the brunch or part of linguistics which deals with the vocabulary
of a language and the properties of words as the main units of
language. The term “vocabulary” is used to denote the system of
words and word-groups that the language possesses. The
literal meaning of the term Lexicology is
“the science of the word”. The
basic task of Lexicology is
the study and systematic description of the vocabulary of some
particular language in respect to its origin, development and current
use. In other words, Lexicology is concerned with words and
word-combinations (or word-groups), phraseological units and
morphemes which make up words.

Lexicology
must be separated from the rest of the linguistic disciplines. In
contrast with phonology, morphology and syntax, it is essentially a
socio-linguistic discipline. Lexicology,
then is the part of linguistics which is concerned with the “lexis”
or the study and analysis of words.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In linguistics, function words (also called functors)^[1] are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among 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 form important elements in the structures of sentences.^[2]

Words that are not function words are called content words (or open class words, lexical words, or autosemantic words) and include nouns, most verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs although some adverbs are function words (like then and why). Dictionaries define the specific meanings of content words but can describe only the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammars describe the use of function words in detail but treat lexical words only in general terms.

Since it was first proposed in 1952 by C. C. Fries, the distinguishing of function/structure words from content/lexical words has been highly influential in the grammar used in second-language acquisition and English-language teaching.^[3]

Overview[edit]

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 because it is very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech. In the open class of words, i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs, new words may be added readily, such as slang words, technical terms, and adoptions and adaptations of foreign words.

Each function word either: gives grammatical information about other words in a sentence or clause, and cannot be isolated from other words; or gives information about 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.^[4] In English, very few words other than function words begin with the voiced th [ð]^{[citation needed]}. English function words may have fewer than three letters; e.g., ‘I’, ‘an’, ‘in’, while non-function words usually have three or more (e.g., ‘eye’, ‘Ann’, ‘inn’).

The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words with English examples. They are all uninflected in English unless marked otherwise:

articles — the and a. In some inflected languages, the articles may take on the case of the declension of the following noun.
pronouns — he :: him, she :: her, etc. — inflected in English
adpositions — in, under, towards, before, of, for, etc.
conjunctions — and and but
subordinating conjunctions — if, then, well, however, thus, etc.
auxiliary verbs — would, could, should, etc. — inflected in English
particles — up, on, down
interjections — oh, ah, eh, sometimes called «filled pauses»
expletives — take the place of sentences, among other functions.
pro-sentences — yes, no, okay, etc.

References[edit]

^ Rudolf Carnap, The Logical Syntax of Language, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937, pp. 13–14.
^ Klammer, Thomas, Muriel R. Schulz and Angela Della Volpe. (2009). Analyzing English Grammar (6th ed).Longman.
^ Fries, Charles Carpenter (1952). The Structure of English. New York: Harcourt Brace.
^ Westphal, E.O.J. (1971), «The click languages of Southern and Eastern Africa», in Sebeok, T.A. (ed.), Current trends in Linguistics, Vol. 7: Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, Berlin: Mouton

External links[edit]

Short list of 225 English function words

Источник

In English grammar, a function word is a word that expresses a grammatical or structural relationship with other words in a sentence.

In contrast to a content word, a function word has little or no meaningful content. Nonetheless, as Ammon Shea points out, «the fact that a word does not have a readily identifiable meaning does not mean that it serves no purpose.»

Function words are also known as:

structure words
grammatical words
grammatical functors
grammatical morphemes
function morphemes
form words
empty words

According to James Pennebaker, «function words account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of your vocabulary but make up almost 60 percent of the words you use.»

Content Words vs. Function Words

Function words include determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, modals, qualifiers, and question words. Content words are words with specific meanings, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs (those without helping verbs.) In the sentence, «The sly brown fox jumped gracefully over the lazy dog and cat,» the content words are:

fox, dog, and cat (nouns)
sly, brown, and lazy (adjectives)
gracefully (adverb)
jumped (main verb)

Function words include:

the (determiner)
over (preposition)
and (conjunction)

Even though the function words don’t have concrete meanings, sentences would make a lot less sense without them.

Determiners

Determiners are words such as articles (the, a), possessive pronouns (their, your), quantifiers (much), demonstratives (that, those), and numbers. They function as adjectives to modify nouns and go in front of a noun to show the reader whether the noun is specific or general, such as in «that coat» (specific) vs. «a coat» (general).

Articles: a, an, the
Demonstratives: that, this, those, these
Possessive pronouns: my, your, their, our, ours, whose, his, hers, its, which
Quantifiers: some, both, most, many, a few, a lot of, any, much, a little, enough, several, none, all

Conjunctions

Conjunctions connect parts of a sentence, such as items in a list, two separate sentences, or clauses and phrases to a sentence. In the previous sentence, the conjunctions are or and and.

Conjunctions: and, but, for, yet, neither, or, so, when, although, however, as, because, before

Prepositions

Prepositions begin prepositional phrases, which contain nouns and other modifiers. Prepositions function to give more information about nouns. In the phrase «the river that flows through the woods.» The prepositional phrase is «through the woods,» and the preposition is «through.»

Prepositions: in, of, between, on, with, by, at, without, through, over, across, around, into, within

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns. Their antecedent needs to be clear, or your reader will be confused. Take «It’s so difficult» as an example. Without context, the reader has no idea what «it» refers to. In context, «Oh my gosh, this grammar lesson,» he said. «It’s so difficult,» the reader easily knows that it refers to the lesson, which is its noun antecedent.

Pronouns: she, they, he, it, him, her, you, me, anybody, somebody, someone, anyone

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs. They pair with a main verb to change tense, such as when you want to express something in present continuous tense (I am walking), past perfect tense (I had walked), or future tense (I am going to walk there).

Auxiliary verbs: be, is, am, are, have, has, do, does, did, get, got, was, were

Modals

Modal verbs express condition or possibility. It’s not certain that something is going to happen, but it might. For example, in «If I could have gone with you, I would have,» modal verbs include could and would.

Modals: may, might, can, could, will, would, shall, should

Qualifiers

Qualifiers function like adverbs and show the degree of an adjective or verb, but they have no real meaning themselves. In the sample sentence, «I thought that somewhat new dish was pretty darn delicious,» the qualifiers are somewhat and pretty.

Qualifiers: very, really, quite, somewhat, rather, too, pretty (much)

Question Words

It’s easy to guess what function that question words have in English. Besides forming questions, they can also appear in statements, such as in «I don’t know how in the world that happened,» where the question word is how.

Question words: how, where, what, when, why, who

Sources

Shea, Ammon Shea. «Bad English.» TarcherPerigee, 2014, New York.
Pennebaker, James. «The Secret Life of Pronouns.» Bloomsbury Press, 2011, New York.

Источник

34. Give the aims and objectives of Lexicology.

Overview[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Content Words vs. Function Words

Determiners

Conjunctions

Prepositions

Pronouns

Auxiliary Verbs

Modals

Qualifiers

Question Words

Sources