3.5 CLOSED CLASSES AND OPEN CLASSES
Closed class members are recognized because:
•They belong to a closed list, only exceptionally extended by the
creation of additional members. For instance, speakers very rarely
invent or import a new article or pronoun.
•They are limited in number
•Their job is to signal the organisation of sentences, a feature which
identifies them explicitly as function words.
Open class words:
•They belong to an open lost. New items are constantly coming into
the language.
•They are unlimited in number: it is virtually impossible to compile
an exhaustive inventory of its members.
•As a lexical word they are the most informative and carry the main
meaning of a sentence.
Lexicology is mainly concerned with the behaviour of lexical or content
words, that is, open class items like nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives and
adverbs. Grammar focus on the behaviour of function words.
PART 4: MORPHOLOGY AND PHONEMES
THE MORPHEME CONCEPT.
Central to the study of words is the linguistic discipline called morphology.
This is the branch of linguistics that deals with the way words are built and
describes how they are organised internally.
Morphology and syntax are viewed by linguistics as the two
complementary branches of grammar. The central units of morphology are
morphemes.
