Content and Function Words

Words 

When we read any text in English, we'll find words. According to Wikipedia.... " a word is the smallest element that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical meaning). This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own. A word may consist of a single morpheme (for example: oh!, rock, red, quick, run, expect), or several (rocks, redness, quickly, running, unexpected), whereas a morpheme may not be able to stand on its own as a word (in the words just mentioned, these are -s, -ness, -ly, -ing, un-, -ed).

A complex word will typically include a root and one or more affixes (rock-s, red-ness, quick-ly, run-ning, un-expect-ed), or more than one root in a compound (black-board, rat-race). Words can be put together to build larger elements of language, such as phrases (a red rock), clauses (I threw a rock), and sentences (He threw a rock too but he missed).

Content words and Function words

Content words are words that have meaning. They are words we would look up in a dictionary, such as "lamp," "computer," "drove." New content words are constantly added to the English language; old content words constantly leave the language as they become obsolete. Therefore, we refer to content words as an "open" class.
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are content parts of speech.

Content Words	examples
Nouns	John, room, answer, Selby
Adjectives	happy, new, large, grey
Full verbs	search, grow, hold, have
Adverbs	really, completely, very, also, enough
Numerals	one, thousand, first
Interjections	eh, ugh, phew, well
Negative Auxiliary verbs	aren’t, won’t, can’t
Demonstratives	Those, this, that
Question Words	How, when, why
Yes/No answers	yes, no (as answers)

Function words are words that exist to explain or create grammatical or structural relationships into which the content words may fit. Words like "of," "the," "to," they have little meaning on their own. They are much fewer in number and generally do not change as English adds and omits content words. Therefore, we refer to function words as a "closed" class.
Pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, qualifiers/intensifiers, and interrogatives are some function parts of speech.

Function Words	examples
Prepositions	of, at, in, without, between
Pronouns	he, they, anybody, it, one
Determiners	the, a, that, my, more, much, either, neither
Conjunctions	and, that, when, while, although, or
Modal verbs	can, must, will, should, ought, need, used
Auxilliary verbs	be (is, am, are), have, got, do
Articles	Few, a, the, an
Particles	no, not, nor, a

Practice 
Content or Function? Check your answer
went
with
just
quickly
the
hard
next to
CD ROM
open
had

Workshop:

1. Look for an article related to your field of expertise. Use Google, write key words related to a topic you want to read about. Add your article to your Scoop.it.
2. Create a document and write about the article. Introduce the topic of the article. Make sure to add the link where you got it from. Write a short summary of the article. Say what it is about. Give your opinion about it.
3. Select two paragraphs from your article and copy them in your document.
Draw a chart. Find 2 examples of each of these: 

• Content words: Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, numerals, demonstratives, question words, interjections. 
• Function words: prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, particles.
• Prefix and suffix
• Cognates: True and false

References:

Word (definition) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word
Introduction to Content/Function Words http://banana.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/transcription/intro.html
PARTS OF SPEECH http://www.towson.edu/ows/ptsspch.htm

TOEFL Content Vs Function Words
http://toefl.jumbotests.com/info/toelf-content-vs-function-words