Function Word (Noun)
Meaning
A word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning.
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- The word 'of' is a function word used in many prepositional phrases in English.
- Articles, such as 'the' and 'a', are examples of function words that serve a specific grammatical purpose.
- Auxiliary verbs and function words like 'is' can change the tense of the verbs in a sentence.
- A function word such as 'the' can affect the entire phrase it appears in.
- Function words like 'on' or 'with' are usually uninflected in English and serve only a grammatical purpose.