ferred to assemantic content.Indeed, we can say that meaning is a primary
characteristic, given that language is by nature full of meaning and significa-
tion. For example, the wordballhas an identifiable meaning, as does the word
tall.People may disagree on the specific meaning of each word, but the dis-
agreements are not major because everyone accepts their general signification.
Function words, on the other hand, do not have meaning as a primary character-
istic. They commonly connect or mark parts of sentences, and their semantic
content is secondary. Function words can be classified into several discrete
types, and the sections that follow examine four categories:determiners, con-
junctions, prepositions,andparticles.
Determiners
The category of determiners is broad and is made up of several subclasses of
words, all of which interact with nouns in some way. In fact, determiners al-
ways come before nouns, although not necessarily immediately before. De-
terminers signal the presence of certain kinds of nouns, which is one reason
that in some analyses determiners are designated as adjectives. But as men-
tioned earlier, the semantic content of determiners is secondary rather than
primary; thus, they are sufficiently different from simple adjectives to war-
rant a separate classification.
At this point, we consider just one type of determiner,articles.Later in the
text, we examine other types.
Articles. There are two types of articles in English,definiteandindefi-
nite:
Definite: the
Indefinite: a, anNouns are either count nouns or noncount nouns, and all singular count
nouns require an article unless it has a number (a quantifier) or a possessive
pronoun in front of it. Definite articles signal that a noun is specific, often tangi-
ble, or that it is identifiable. Indefinite articles, on the other hand, signal that a
noun is nonspecific, often intangible, or that it is not uniquely identifiable.^5
Consider these sentences:
TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR 83
(^5) An exception occurs whenever we are referring to an entire class of objects or beings. Consider, for
example,The dolphin is a mammal, not a fish.