Content and Structure words

 SRR Govt.Arts& Science College Karimnagar

 Satavahana University Karimnagar- English-Degree I Year-Semester-1.-2020-21 onwards

Unit .2. Marks 5-

GRAMMAR:-Content and Structure words

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Words that are stressed usually are called Content words. They are also called lexical words. they give information and have lexical meaning.

2)Structure words are unstressed. They are also called function words or Grammatical words. They have little lexical meaning,

Dictionaries give 'meanings' for lexical words and 'uses' for structure words. The lexical words have 'content', some substance of meaning which can also be represented in other ways, by other words or by pictures. They have synonyms and can be shown in pictures. for example, Microscope (noun) a picture is shown along with the meaning.

Structure words do not have much content; as a result, they cannot generally be represented by other words, we can use the words 'cloudy' or 'not clear' for nebulous, but we cannot use a for the or at for in, or it for him. 

Let us take the sentence:

The weather in England is cool.

If we remove the structure words (bold) from this sentence,

  weather          England        cool

The England has cool weather.

The weather is cool in England.

The meaning of a sentence does not come from lexical words only: some meaning is also contributed by structure words.

Content words: -

The following are content words.

a) Nouns: -Name of a person, place or thing.

Ex: -Raju, Delhi, Table.

b) Verbs: -action words

Ex: - jump, play, kick,watch,go,

c)Adjectives: - Describing words. Adjectives modify nouns. They tell more about noun

Ex: - It is a big building. (big- an adjective)

d)Adverbs: - Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and another adverb.

e) Question Words: - who, what, when.

f) Negatives: - don't, never, won't.

Identify content words in the given sentences

1)He is a teacher

Ans-teacher(noun)

2) RK Narayan was a great novelist.

RK Narayan (noun)

Great (Adjective)

Novelist(noun)

3)An old beggar cried for alms at the gate.

Old (adjective)

beggar (noun)

Cried( verb)

Alms(noun)

Gate(noun)

4) The weather in England is cool.

Weather

England

cool

Structure words: -

a) Auxiliary verbs-am,is,are,was,were,do,does,did,have,has,had.

b) Prepositions - show the relationships of nouns and pronouns with other words in the sentence.

Ex: - in, into, by with,on,at,from,to,over,up,upon, below.

C)Articles -are determiners. used to indicate specific or non-specific nouns - a, an, the

Conjunctions -words that connect two words or group of words. Ex:- and, but, though, although

Pronouns -used in place of nouns.

Ist person pronouns- I, we.

2nd person pronouns- You.

3rd person pronouns- He,she,it, they.

Identify the structure words in the below given sentences

1)He is a teacher.

he(pronoun)

is(Helping verb)

a (article)

2)The weather in England is cool.

The(article)

in (preposition)

is(helping verb)

In the sentence “The weather in the England is cool”, the structure words are:

• The: a determiner that specifies the noun weather
• in: a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase in the England
• the: another determiner that specifies the noun England
• is an auxiliary verb that forms the present simple tense with the main verb cool.
• Content Words are: -
• Weather(noun)
• England(noun)
• cool (adjective)

Exercises 

Identify Content words and Structure words in the following.

John has lived in India for two years.

Sreehitha is going to America next week.

Sushanth had come home before his father arrived.

He does not understand the chapters in the book.

Answers; -

Content words are in bold, and the remaining words are strcuture words.

John has lived in India for two years.

Sreehitha is going to America next week.

Sushanth had come home before his father arrived.

He does not understand the chapters in the book.

Click the below link to watch video lesson on Content and Structure words.

https://youtu.be/Wzyvl5myAKs

https://youtu.be/1-fc3UjGTIU

S.RAJESH KUMAR 

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