AN ANALYSIS OF PARTS OF SPEECH, CONTENT AND FUNCTION WORDS AND PHRASE

1. Parts of Speech

The parts of speech are categories used to organize or classify words according to how they are used. We use parts of speech as a way to make it easier to talk about language. We usually use eight categories of parts of speech to classify all the words we use in English. This classification is not perfect. Sometimes it is hard to tell which category a word belongs in. the same word may belong in different categories depending on how it is used. there may be better ways to classify English than by using the eight parts of speech. But this classification has been used foa a long time and many grammar books use it, so it is easier to keep on using it. It is possible to speak or learn a language without knowing the parts of speech, but for most of us, knowing about parts of speech makes things easier.

The eight parts of speech that are used to describe English words are :

1.       Nouns

From Internet
A noun is often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing.  Here are some examples of nouns: boy, river, friend, Mexico, triangle, day, school, truth, university, idea, John F. Kennedy, movie, aunt, vacation, eye, dream, flag, teacher, class, grammar. John F. Kennedy is a noun because it is the name of a person; Mexico is a noun because it is the name of a place; and boy is a noun because it is the name of a thing.

Some grammar books divide nouns into 2 groups - proper nouns and common nouns.  Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person place or thing.  Some examples of proper nouns are: Mexico, John F. Kennedy, Atlantic Ocean, February, Monday, New York City, Susan, Maple Street, Burger King. If you see a word beginning with a capital letter in in the middle of a sentence, it is probably a proper noun.  Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a capital letter.

Many nouns have a special plural form if there is more than one.  For example, we say one book but two books.  Plurals are usually formed by adding an -s (books) or -es (boxes) but some plurals are formed in different ways (child - children, person - people, mouse - mice, sheep - sheep).

From Literatur

A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. Nouns are usually the first words which small children learn. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all nouns:

Late last year our neighbours bought a goat.

Portia White was an opera singer.

The bus inspector looked at all the passengers' passes.

According to Plutarch, the library at Alexandria was destroyed in 48 B.C.

Philosophy is of little comfort to the starving.

A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.

My opinion as follows:

NOUN: These name persons, things, places, ideas -- can be concrete or abstract. EX: Stephanie, door, biology, honor.

 2. Verbs

A verb is often defined as a word which shows action or state of being. The verb is the heart of a sentence - every sentence must have a verb. Recognizing the verb is often the most important step in understanding the meaning of a sentence. In the sentence The dog bit the man, bit is the verb and the word which shows the action of the sentence.  In the sentence The man is sitting on a chair, even though the action doesn't show much activity, sitting is the verb of the sentence.  In the sentence She is a smart girl, there is no action but a state of being expressed by the verb is. The word be is different from other verbs in many ways but can still be thought of as a verb.

Unlike most of the other parts of speech, verbs change their form.  Sometimes endings are added (learn - learned) and sometimes the word itself becomes different (teach-taught).  The different forms of verbs show different meanings related to such things as tense (past, present, future), person (first person, second person, third person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive). Verbs are also often accompanied by verb-like words called modals (may, could, should, etc.) and auxiliaries(do, have, will, etc.)  to give them different meanings.

One of the most important things about verbs is their relationship to time.  Verbs tell if something has already happened, if it will happen later, or if it is happening now.  For things happening now, we use the present tense of a verb; for something that has already happened, we use the past tense; and for something that will happen later, we use the future tense.  Some examples of verbs  in each tense are in the chart below:

Present	Past	Future
look	Looked	will look
move	Moved	will move
Talk	Talked	will talk

Verbs like those in the chart above that form the past tense by adding -d or -ed are called regular verbs.  Some of the most common verbs are not regular and the different forms of the verb must be learned.  Some examples of such irregular verbs are in the chart below:  

Present	Past	Future
See	Saw	will see
Hear	Heard	will hear
Speak	Spoke	will speak

The charts above show the simple tenses of the verbs.  There are also progressive or continuous forms which show that the action takes place over a period of time, and perfect forms which show completion of the action.  These forms will be discussed more in other lessons, but a few examples are given in the chart below:

Present Continuous	Present Perfect
is looking	has looked
is speaking	has spoken
is talking	has talked

Simple present tense verbs have a special form for the third person singular.

A verb must "agree" with its subject. Subject-verb agreement generally means that  the third person singular verb form must be used with a third person subject in the simple present tense. The  word be - the most irregular and also most common verb in English - has different forms for each person and even for the simple past tense.  The forms of the word be are given in the chart below:

Number	Person	Present	Past	Future
Singular	1st (I)	am	was	will be
	2nd (you)	are	were	will be
	3rd (he, she, it)	is	was	will be
Plural	1st (we)	are	were	will be
	2nd (you)	are	were	will be
	3rd (they)	are	were	will be

Usually a subject comes before a verb and an object may come after it.  hat does the action of the verb and the object is what receives the action.  In the sentence Bob ate a humburger, Bob is the subject or the one who did the eating and the hamburger is the object or what got eaten.  A verb which has an object is called a transitive verb and some examples are throw, buy, hit, love.  A verb which has no object is called an intransitive verb and some examples are go, come, walk, listen.

As you can see in the charts above, verbs are often made up of more than one word. The future forms, for example, use the word will and the perfect forms use the word have.  These words are called helping or auxiliary verbs.  The word be can serve as an auxiliary and will and shall are also auxiliary forms. The chart below shows two other verbs which can also be used as auxiliaries:
 

Number	Person	Present	Past
Singular	1st (I)	have do	had did
	2nd (you)	have do	had did
	3rd (he, she, it)	has does	had did
Plural	1st (we)	have do	had did
	2nd (you)	have do	had did
	3rd (they)	have do	had did

`There is a type of auxiliary verb called a modal which changes the meaning of a verb in different ways.  Words like can, should, would, may, might, and must are modals and are covered in other lessons.

From Literatur

The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb or compound verb asserts something about the subject of the sentence and express actions, events, or states of being. The verb or compound verb is the critical element of the predicate of a sentence.

In each of the following sentences, the verb or compound verb is highlighted:

Dracula bites his victims on the neck.

The verb "bites" describes the action Dracula takes.

In early October, Giselle will plant twenty tulip bulbs.

Here the compound verb "will plant" describes an action that will take place in the future.

My first teacher was Miss Crawford, but I remember the janitor Mr. Weatherbee more vividly.

In this sentence, the verb "was" (the simple past tense of "is") identifies a particular person and the verb "remembered" describes a mental action.

Karl Creelman bicycled around the world in 1899, but his diaries and his bicycle were destroyed.

In this sentence, the compound verb "were destroyed" describes an action which took place in the past.

My opinion as follows:

VERB: These state an action or a state of being. EX: kick, call, create, is, will be. Verbs can be transitive, meaning that they act on something else, or intransitive, meaning that they don't. EX: Transitive: Walter kicked the football. Intransitive: I was asleep. Verbs can also be linking verbs, meaning that they connect a subject to a word or group of words which describe or complete its meaning. EX: The car was blue and full of bullet holes.

3. Adjectives

From Internet

An adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun.  Adjectivesdescribe nouns in terms of  such qualities as size, color, number, and kind.  In the sentence The lazy dog sat on the rug, the word lazyis an adjective which gives more information about the noun dog.  We can add  more adjectives to describe the dogas well as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the rug.  We can also add adjectives to describe the rug as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the beautiful, expensive, new rug. The adjectives do not change the basic meaning or structure of the sentence, but they do give a lot more information about the dog and the rug. As you can see in the example above, when more than one adjective is used, a comma (,) is used between the adjectives.

Usually an adjective comes before the noun that it describes, as in tall man. It can also come after a form of the word beas in The man is tall.  More than one adjective can be used in this position  in the sentence The man is tall, dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn how to make comparisons with adjectives.

Most adjectivesdo not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural.  For example we saybig tree and big trees, old house and old houses, good time and good times.  There are, however, some adjectives that do have different singular andplural forms.  The common words this and thathave the plural formsthese andthose. These words are called demonstrative adjectives because demonstrate or point out what is being referred to.

Another common type of adjective is the possessive adjective which shows possession or ownership. The words my dog or my dogs indicate that the dog or dogsbelong to me.  I would use the plural form our if the dog or dogsbelonged to me and other people.  The chart below shows the forms of possessive adjectives.
 

Person*	Singular	Plural
1st Person	my	our
2nd Person	your	your
3rd Person	his/her/its	their

·         *Personis used here as a grammar word and has these meanings:
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you)
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).

From Literatur

An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. An adjective usually precedes the noun or the pronoun which it modifies.

In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:

The truck-shaped balloon floated over the treetops.

Mrs. Morrison papered her kitchen walls with hideous wall paper.

The small boat foundered on the wine dark sea.

The coal mines are dark and dank.

Many stores have already begun to play irritating Christmas music.

A battered music box sat on the mahogany sideboard.

The back room was filled with large, yellow rain boots.

An adjective can be modified by an adverb, or by a phrase or clause functioning as an adverb. In the sentence

My husband knits intricately patterned mittens.

for example, the adverb "intricately" modifies the adjective "patterned."

Some nouns, many pronouns, and many participle phrases can also act as adjectives. In the sentence

Eleanor listened to the muffled sounds of the radio hidden under her pillow.

for example, both highlighted adjectives are past participles.

Grammarians also consider articles ("the," "a," "an") to be adjectives.

My opinion as follows:

An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. An adjective usually precedes the noun or the pronoun which it modifies

4. Adverbs
           

From Internet

We have seen that an adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun.  An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb.  Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of such qualities as time, frequency and manner.  In the sentence Sue runs fast, fast describes how or the manner in which Sue runs.  In the sentence Sue runs very fast, very describes the adverb fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs.

Most, but not all adverbs end in -ly as in  But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (ugly is an adjective, supply and reply can both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective can be made into an adverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely.

Adverbs of time tell when something happens and adverbs of frequency tell how often something happens.  Below are some common  adverbs of time and frequency which you should learn:
 

Adverbs of Time	Adverbs of Frequency
Do it now.	I always do my homework
I will see you then.	We sometimes get confused.
They will be here soon.	He usually gets good grades.
I can't meet you today.	I never went skiing.
Let's go tomorrow.	She rarely eats a big breakfast.
They told me yesterday.	He was once on TV.
Have you traveled recently?	He saw the movie twice

From Literatur

An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," "how much".

While some adverbs can be identified by their characteristic "ly" suffix, most of them must be identified by untangling the grammatical relationships within the sentence or clause as a whole. Unlike an adjective, an adverb can be found in various places within the sentence.

My opinion as follows:

ADVERB: These modify several things: verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs are often made from adjectives (careful -- carefully). They answer these questions about an action: where? When? Why? How? In what way? How much? EX: tomorrow, next, quietly, honorably, very

5. Pronouns

From Internet

A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun.  For example, instead of saying John is a student, the pronoun he can be used in place of the noun John and the sentence becomes He is a student.  We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do not have to keep on repeating a noun.  This chapter is about the kind of pronoun called a personal pronoun because it often refers to a person.  Like nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have singular and plural forms (I-we, he-they).

Unlike nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have different forms for masculine/male, feminine/female and neuter  (he-she-it).  Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have different forms depending on if  they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her).  A subject is a word which does an action and usually comes before the verb, and an object is a word that receives an action and usually comes after the verb.  For example, in the sentence Yesterday Susan called her mother, Susan is the subject and mother is the object.  The pronoun she can be used instead of Susan and the pronoun her can be used instead of mother.  The form of a personal pronoun also changes according to what person is referred to.  Person is used here as a grammar word and means:
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you),
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).

There is also a possessive form of the pronoun.  Just as we can make a noun possessive as in the sentence That is my father's book to mean That is the book of my father, we can make the pronoun possessive and say That book is his.  There are possessive adjective forms (such as my, your, his, her etc.) that are discussed with other adjectives in chapter 4.  Possessive pronouns can stand by themselves without nouns, but possessive adjectives, like other adjectives, are used together with nouns.

There is also an intensive form of the pronoun which intensifies or emphasizes the noun that it comes after as in the sentence I myself saw him.  The reflexive form of the pronoun looks exactly like the intensive form but is used when the subject and object of a verb refers to the same person as in the sentence I saw myself in the mirror.

All of this may sound confusing, but if you study the chart below, it will be clearer:

Singular

Person	Subject	Object	Possessive	Intensive  Reflexive
1st	I	me	mine	Myself
2nd	you	you	yours	Yourself
3rd	he/she/it	him/her/it	his/hers	himself/herself/itself

Plural

Person	Subject	Object	Possessive	Intensive  Reflexive
1st	we	us	ours	ourselves
2nd	you	you	yours	yourselves
3rd	they	them	theirs	themselves

Notice that the form you is the same for subject and object, singular and plural and that there is no neuter singular possessive form.

There are also interrogative pronouns (who, which, what) used for asking questions and relative pronouns (who, which, what, that) used in complex sentences which will be discussed in another place.  Some grammar books also talk about demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) and indefinite pronouns (some, all, both, each, etc.) which are very similar to adjectives and do not need to be discussed.

From Literatur

A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns like "he," "which," "none," and "you" to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.

Grammarians classify pronouns into several types, including the personal pronoun, the demonstrative pronoun, the interrogative pronoun, the indefinite pronoun, the relative pronoun, the reflexive pronoun, and the intensive pronoun.

My opinion as follows:

A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun. this substitute for nouns but act in the same way. They can be individual (I, you, he) or collective (everyone, each). EX: they, who, which, she.

6. Prepositions

From Internet

A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence.  The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount.  In the sentence She went to the store, to is a preposition which shows direction.  In the sentence He came by bus, by is a  preposition which shows manner.  In the sentence They will be here at three o'clock, at is a preposition which shows time and in the sentence It is under the table, under is a preposition which shows place.

A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the preposition.  The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why it is called a preposition.  The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase.  The following chart shows the prepositions, objects of the preposition, and prepositional phrases of the sentences above.

Preposition	Object of the Preposition	Prepositional Phrase
To	the store	to the store
By	Bus	by bus
At	three o'clock	at three o'clock
Under	the table	under the table

From Literatur

PREPOSITIONS: These words or phrases relate nouns or pronouns tother words in a sentence, and often indicate some sort of positional relationship. EX: of, in, about, to, around, next to, on top of. Learning about the parts of speech is the first step in grammar study just as learning the letters of the alphabet is the first step to being able to read and write.  From learning the parts of speech we begin to understand the use or function of words and how words are joined together to make meaningful communication.  To understand what a part of speech is, you must understand the idea of  putting similar things together into groups or categories. 

My opinion as follows:

A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition

7. Conjunctions

From Internet

A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words.  In the sentence Bob and Dan are friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the sentence  He will drive or fly,  the conjunction or connects two verbs.  In the sentence It is early but we can go, the conjunction but connects two groups of words.

Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence.  The most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways:

and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank. or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or Tuesday. but is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong.
so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.

Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and will be discussed more in another class.  For now, you should know some of the more common subordinating conjunctions such as:

    after                before                unless
    although          if                        until
    as                   since                   when
    because          than                    while

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together.  In the sentence Both Jan and Meg are good swimmers, both . . .and are correlative conjunctions. The most common correlative conjunctions are:

              both . . .and
              either . . . or
              neither . . . nor
              not only . . . but also Conjunction

From Literatur

These join words, phrases and clauses. There are three kinds of conjuctions:

1. Coordinating Conjunctions: these are single words that join words, phrases, and clauses of equal grammatical importance in the sentence. EX: and, but, or, so.
2. Coorelative Conjunctions: these are pairs of words that join equally important words, phrases, and clauses. EX: either...or, both...and, not only...but also.
3. Subordinating Conjuctions: these begin clauses that cannot stand on their own and tell you how that clause relates to the rest of the sentence. These words help you create sentences with increasingly complicated ideas and relationships between those ideas. EX (not a complete list): if, because, although, when, where, unless, until, sinc

My opinion as follows:

A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words

8. Interjection

From Internet

Interjection is a word used to express a strong feeling, either happy feeling, sad, anger, annoyed, proud, touched etc. and this interjection alwys ended by exclamation point (!).

Actually, interjection isn’t a part of sentence (parts of speech) because interjection has not a grammar relationship with another worrds. But, in the linguist opinion, interjection called as an oldest word in language life because of very fisrt form used people to communicate is interjection.

Different with another word form, interjection always stand alone as a  combination. And generally, after interjection will be accompanied another sentence as complement of interjection. A complement sentence which accompany interjection in English called “Exclamantory Sentence”.

From Literatur

An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion. It is not  related to any other part of the sentence.

usually follow an interjection with an exclamation mark. Interjections are uncommon in formal academic prose, except in direct quotations.

The highlighted words in the following sentences are interjections:

Ouch, that hurt!

Oh no, I forgot that the exam was today.

Hey! Put that down!

I heard one guy say to another guy, "He has a new car, eh?"

I don't know about you but, good lord, I think taxes are too high!

 My opinion as follows:

Interjection is a word used to express a strong feeling, either happy feeling, sad, anger, annoyed, proud, touched etc. and this interjection alwys ended by exclamation point (!).

An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion. It is not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence.

2. Content and Function Words

Words are divided into two categories: Function Words and Content Words. Function words are closed class words (only about 300 in English) while content words are open class words (new words are being added in every language).

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
Particles	no, not, nor, as

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
Yes/Noanswers	yes, no (as answers)

Note: The same lexical word can function as either content or function word depending on it's function in an utterance.

Example 1

"I have come to see you"	"have" is a function word (auxiliary verb)
"I have three apples"	"have" is a content word (full verb)

Example 2

"One has one's principles"	"one" is a function word (pronoun)
"I have one apple"	"one" is a content word (numeral)

·        
Example 3

"I have no more money"	"no" is a function word (a negative particle)
"No. I am not coming"	"no" is a content word (Yes/No answer)

1. Content Words

From Internet

For those unfamiliar with accessibility issues pertaining to Web page design, consider that many users may be operating in contexts very different from your own:

• They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
• They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
• They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse.
• They may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
• They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
• They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are busy or interfered with (e.g., driving to work, working in a loud environment, etc.).
• They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.

Content developers must consider these different situations during page design. While there are several situations to consider, each accessible design choice generally benefits several disability groups at once and the Web community as a whole. For example, by using style sheets to control font styles and eliminating the FONT element, HTML authors will have more control over their pages, make those pages more accessible to people with low vision, and by sharing the style sheets, will often shorten page download times for all users.

The guidelines discuss accessibility issues and provide accessible design solutions. They address typical scenarios (similar to the font style example) that may pose problems for users with certain disabilities. For example, the first guideline explains how content developers can make images accessible. Some users may not be able to see images, others may use text-based browsers that do not support images, while others may have turned off support for images (e.g., due to a slow Internet connection). The guidelines do not suggest avoiding images as a way to improve accessibility. Instead, they explain that providing a text equivalent of the image will make it accessible.

How does a text equivalent make the image accessible? Both words in "text equivalent" are important:

·         Text content can be presented to the user as synthesized speech, Braille, and visually-displayed text. Each of these three mechanisms uses a different sense -- ears for synthesized speech, tactile for Braille, and eyes for visually-displayed text -- making the information accessible to groups representing a variety of sensory and other disabilities.

·         In order to be useful, the text must convey the same function or purpose as the image. For example, consider a text equivalent for a photographic image of the Earth as seen from outer space. If the purpose of the image is mostly that of decoration, then the text "Photograph of the Earth as seen from outer space" might fulfill the necessary function. If the purpose of the photograph is to illustrate specific information about world geography, then the text equivalent should convey that information. If the photograph has been designed to tell the user to select the image (e.g., by clicking on it) for information about the earth, equivalent text would be "Information about the Earth". Thus, if the text conveys the same function or purpose for the user with a disability as the image does for other users, then it can be considered a text equivalent.

While Web content developers must provide text equivalents for images and other multimedia content, it is the responsibility of user agents (e.g., browsers and assistive technologies such as screen readers, Braille displays, etc.) to present the information to the user. Non-text equivalents of text (e.g., icons, pre-recorded speech, or a video of a person translating the text into sign language) can make documents accessible to people who may have difficulty accessing written text, including many individuals with cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, and deafness. Non-text equivalents of text can also be helpful to non-readers. An auditory description is an example of a non-text equivalent of visual information. An auditory description of a multimedia presentation's visual track benefits people who cannot see the visual information. .

Examples and Observations:

"All morphemes can be divided into the categories lexical [content] and grammatical [function]. A lexical morpheme has a meaning that can be understood fully in and of itself--{boy}, for example, as well as {run}, {green}, {quick}, {paper}, {large}, {throw}, and {now}. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are typical kinds of lexical morphemes. Grammatical morphemes, on the other hand--such as {of}, {and}, {the}, {ness}, {to}, {pre}, {a}, {but}, {in}, and {ly}--can be understood completely only when they occur with other words in a sentence."

From Literature

Content word is a word that conveys information in a text or speech act. Content words--which include nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, and adverbs--belong to open classes of words: that is, new members are readily added.

Content words are words that have meaning. They can be compared to grammatical words, which are structural. Nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs are usually content words. Auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, and prepositions are usually grammatical words.

Example:
We flew over the mountains at dawn'.

My opinion as follows:

Content word is word that have meaning. Content word is a word that conveys information in a text or speech act

Examples:

Drive, kill, love, boy, girl, plant, happy, quickly.

2. Function word

Function words (or grammatical words) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. Words that are not function words are called content words (or open class words or lexical words): these include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs, although some adverbs are function words (e.g., then and why). Dictionaries define the specific meanings of content words, but can only describe the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammars describe the use of function words in detail, but treat lexical words in general terms only.

Function words might be prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, grammatical articles or particles, all of which belong to the group of closed-class words. Interjections are sometimes considered function words but they belong to the group of open-class words. Function words might or might not be inflected or might have affixes.

Function words belong to the closed class of words in grammar in that it is very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech, whereas in the open class of words (that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs) new words may be added readily (such as slang words, technical terms, and adoptions and adaptations of foreign words). See neologism.

Each function word either gives some grammatical information on other words in a sentence or clause, and cannot be isolated from other words, or it may indicate the speaker's mental model as to what is being said.

Grammatical words, as a class, can have distinct phonological properties from content words. Grammatical words sometimes do not make full use of all the sounds in a language. For example, in some of the Khoisan languages, most content words begin with clicks, but very few function words do.^[1] In English, only function words begin with voiced th- [ð] (see Pronunciation of English th).

The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words:

• articles — the and a. In some inflected languages, the articles may take on the case of the declension of the following noun.
• pronouns — inflected in English, as he — him, she — her, etc.
• adpositions — uninflected in English
• conjunctions — uninflected in English
• auxiliary verbs — forming part of the conjugation (pattern of the tenses of main verbs), always inflected
• interjections — sometimes called "filled pauses", uninflected
• particles — convey the attitude of the speaker and are uninflected, as if, then, well, however, thus, etc.
• expletives — take the place of sentences, among other functions.
• pro-sentences — yes, okay, etc.

My opinion as follows:

Function words is word that exist in sentence that have grammatical meaning. Function word give grammatical information to the sentence.

Examples:

·         I have to come earlier.

·         I have two apples.

·         One has one apple.

·         I have no money.

·         No, I’m not coming yet.

Note the differences between content and function parts of speech:           

3. Phrases

In grammar, a phrase is a group of words functioning as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. Or a phrase is a group of words that do not have subject and predicate.

Language forms do not just consist of sequences of words put together like beads on a string. They can be broken down into units (r constituents), which can again be analysed hierarchically into successively smaller units.

a phrase may consist of a single word or of a group of words. The identify of phrases can be shown by substitution ; a multi-word phrase can often be replaced by a single word without destroying the overall meaning.

Corresponding to each type of lexical word, there is a major phrase type with the lexical word as head and a number of accompanying elements :

Each phrase type can consist of the head only. A fifth mjor category is the prepositional phrase. In addition, there are some more marginal phrase types, in paticular genitive phrases, and numeral phrases.

1.    Noun Phrases

From Internet:

A noun phrase in the strict sense consist of a noun as head, either alone or accompanied by determiners (which specify the reference of the noun) and modifiers (which describe or classify the entity denoted by the head noun). The head noun can also be followed by complements, which complete the meaning of the noun and typically take the form of that-clauses or infinitive clauses. Head nouns followed by complements are typically abstract nouns derived from verbs or adjectives. Besides common nouns, noun phrases may be headed by proper nouns, pronouns, and nominalized adjectives.

Noun phrases may have a wide range of syntatic roles, they are subject, direct object, indirect object, prepositional object, complement object, complement of preposition, subject predicative, object predicative, adverbial, premodifier of noun, apposition, and premodifier in adjective or adverb phrase.

In addition, noun phrase can be used as peripheral elements in the clause : detached predicative, parenthetical, preface, tag, and vocative. Finally, they may occur independently of any clause structure.

From literature:

Noun phrase in the strict sense consists of a noun as head, either alone or accompanied by determiners (while specify the reference of the noun) and modifiers (which describe or classify the entity denoted by the head noun). The head is in bold in the following examples (head nouns embedded noun phrases are not highlighted).

Examples:

·         The popular assumption that language simply serves to communicate thoughts or ideas is too simplistic .

·         Dido lives in Wimbled

·         They said they’d got it.

·         Anybody can see that.

My opinion as follows:

A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of words a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb.

Example:

·         Soggy chips

·         Fried chicken

·         The man

·         The dog

·         Pamphlets advertising new syntactic theories

2.    Verb Phrases

From Internet:

Verb phrases contain a lexical verb or primary verb as head or main verb, either alone or accompanied by one or more auxiliaries. The auxiliaries specify the way in which the action, state, or process denoted by the main verb is to be interpreted. in addition, the first auxiliary has the special role of operator.

Note that yhe term ’verb phrase’ or’VP’ is sometimes used in other grammars to refer to the main verb plus accompanying elements, including objects and predicatives. This use corresponds to predicate in our treatment.

The only syntatic role of finite verb phrases is to serve as a central clause statement. Many verb forms may have roles characteristic of nouns and adjectives. Such uses are limited to participle forms (ending in –ed or –ing), originally so called because they participate in more than one word class. In these cases, verb forms tend to acquire the caracteristics of nouns and adjectives. .

From literature:

Verb phrase contain a lexical verb or primary verb as head or main verb, either alone or accompanied by one or more auxiliaries. The auxiliaries specify the way in which the action, state, or process denoted by the main verb is to be interpreted; In addition, the first auxiliary has the special role of operator.

·         The main verb is in bold in following examples :

·         Was walking

·         Can see

·         Had beep making

·         Should have said

My opinion as follows:

A verb phrase is defined as the main verb together with all its auxiliaries (helping verbs).

Example:

·         Remind me of you

3. Adjective Phrases

From Internet :

Adjective phrases contain an adjective as head, optionally accompanied by modifiers in the form of single words, phrases, and clauses. The accompanying elements in an adjective phrase characteristically indicate the degree of the quality denoted by the adjective (e.g. ’How lucky/poor?’) or describe the respect in which the quality is to be interpreted (e.g. ’Guilty/slow in what respect?’). in the latter case, the accompanying elements serve to complete the meaning of the adjective and are generally called complements. Complements generally take the form of prepositional phrases or clauses.

Adjective phrases may have the following syntatic roles, they are : premodifier of noun, subject predicative, postmodifier of noun, and object predicative. Adjective phrases can also be used as detached predicatives, as clause links, and independently of any clause structure. Adjective may further take on nominal role.

From literature:

Adjective phrases contain an adjective as head, optionally accompanied by modifiers in the form of single words, phrases, and clause. The adjective head is in bold in the following

Examples:

·         So lucky

·         Good enough

·         Slow to respond

·         Guilty of a serious crime.

My opinion as follows:

In an Adjective phrase, the Head word is an adjective . The pre-Head string in an AP is most commonly an adverb phrase such as very or extremely. Adjective Heads may be followed by a post-Head string . We have seen already in the Preliminary section that Adjective is a word which gives an additional detail about the meaning of a noun.

Example-1:
• Mr. Clinton is wealthy man.
  What kind of man is Mr. Clinton is answered by the word ‘wealthy’.  The same word can be replaced with a group of words ‘of great wealth’.

 • The Politician is a kind man.
This sentence can be worded in different manner using a different adjective phrase.

 • These students belonged to the hill tribe.

4. Adverb Phrases

From internet :

Adverb phrasess contain an adverb as head, optionally accompanied by modifiers in the form of single words, phrases, and clauses. Adverb phrases are similar in structure to adjective phrases. Modifiers of adverbs are chiefly expressions of degree. Adverb phrases should be distinguished from adverbials, which are clause elements that can be realized in a variety of ways (e.g. by adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, and clauses).

Adverb phrases may have the following syntatic roles, they are : modifier in adjective or adverb phrase, adverbials on the clause level, pre- and postmodifier in noun phrase, complement of preposition, and premodifier in prepositional phrase.

From literature :

Adverb phrase contain an adverb as head, optionally accompanied by modifiers in the from of single word, phrase, and clauses.

The head is in bold in the following examples :

·         Hardly ever

·         Very quickly

·          Quite melodiously.

My opinion as follows:

An adverb may be a single word, such as quickly, here or yesterday. However, adverbs can also be phrases, some made with prepositions, others made with infinitives. This page will explain the basic types of adverb phrases (sometimes called "adverbial phrases") and how to recognize them.

Examples:

·         Fortunately enough

·         So quickly you don’t even enjoy it

·         Much more quickly than envisaged.

4. Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases consist of a preposition and a complement, most typically in the form of a noun phrase. The typical prepositional phrase may indeed be viewed as a noun phrase extended by a link showing its relationship to surronding structures.

Prepositions also take nominal clauses as complements, but normally only wh-clauses and ing-clauses. The prepositions but, except, and save may, however, be followed by infinitive clauses. Additionally, the complement may be an adverb, or another prepositional phrase. Prepositional phrases as complements of prepositions are chiefly found in expressions of direction.

Prepositional phrases vary with respect to how closely they are connected with surronding structures, they are : adverbial on the clause level, postmodifier and complement of noun, premodifier of nouns, and complement of adjectives.

From literature :

Prepositional phrases consist of a preposition and a complement, most typically in the form of a noun phrase. The typical prepositional phrase may indeed be viewed as a noun phrase extended by a link showing its relationship to surroudding structures. The complement is in bold in the following.

 examples :

·         He read this book in the classroom

·         My mother cook a rice in the morning.

My opinion as follows

phrase usually consist of a Head -- a preposition -- and a post-Head string only.

Here are some examples:

[PP through the window]
PP over the bar]