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In [[linguistics]], '''function words''' (also called '''functors''')<ref>[[Rudolf Carnap]], ''The Logical Syntax of Language'', Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1937, pp. 13–14.</ref> are [[word]]s that have little [[Lexical (semiotics)|lexical]] [[Meaning (linguistic)|meaning]] or have [[ambiguous]] meaning and express [[grammar|grammatical]] relationships among other words within a [[Sentence (linguistics)|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.<ref>Klammer, Thomas, Muriel R. Schulz and Angela Della Volpe. (2009). ''Analyzing English Grammar (6th ed).''Longman.</ref>
Words that are not function words are called ''[[content word]]s'' (or [[open class word|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]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fries|first1=Charles Carpenter|title=The Structure of English|url=https://archive.org/details/structureofengli0000frie|url-access=registration|date=1952|publisher=Harcourt Brace|location=New York}}</ref>
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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
The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words with English examples. They are all [[uninflected word|uninflected]] in English unless marked otherwise:
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== References ==
{{Reflist
== Further reading ==
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