English Words ( 4 )

Nidhu Bhusan Das : Structure Words have certain characteristics which distinguish them from Content Words. They occur frequently, they are a closed class, they are structural markers and they provide grammatical framework of a sentence. Let us now go for details. 1. Frequency: Structure Words occur frequently in an English sentence. The occurrence is more frequent that that of Content Words. According to one count, on an average, one-third or more of the words that occur in a text are Structure Words. Besides, Structure Words occur with equal frequency in all kinds of styles and varieties of English. This is not the characteristic of Content Words. The occurrence of Content Words depends on various factors like the theme, the choice of style, the level of education of the person addressed. The content words that occur in a discussion on politics are not likely to occur in a discussion on biology, the content words used in an informal communication are unlikely to occur in a formal communication. Structure Words, on the other hand, are always the same. We do not have substitutes for articles, auxiliaries, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. in English. So, their frequency is the same in every style and every use except in cases as in telegrams where structure words are often dropped to save cost. 2. A Closed Class: Structure Words are limited and only a few in number. There are two articles (a/an & the), 25 -30 pronouns, 60 -70 prepositions, 35-40 conjunctions, 15 -16 auxiliaries and a few other words. Their total number in English is not more than 200 -250. On the other hand, the number of Content Words is huge, and increasing. The content words form an open class. 3. Structural Markers: Structure Words always occur with content words belonging to the major parts of speech nouns, verbs, etc. As the consonants by themselves cannot form a word, so the content words cannot by themselves form a sentence. Structure words must be there to combine with the content words to form a good sentence. 4. Provide Grammatical Framework: Structure Words (also inflections) function as structural markers. They tell us the grammatical category of the words with which they occur. Once we know the grammatical categories of all the words in a sentence we know its grammatical structure to a great extent. The framework contributes its own meaning. It is called structural meaning. If we pluck out the structure words, the structural meaning is gone.( to be continued )