L & G

Name   :           Syarifah Chaniago

Prody  :           Sastra Inggris

NPM   :           146224008

Resume of Lexical and Gramatical Word

Words are not all created equally. Not only do they have different meanings, but they also have different grammatical functions. In a sense, some words possess more meaning than functionality, while other words possess more functionality than meaning. These two classes of words are called "lexical" and "grammatical" words. The following questions explore the differences between lexical words and grammatical words to help you understand their usage.

What are Lexical Words?

Lexical words, also known as content words, have concrete meaning that goes beyond their function in a sentence. These words refer to things, people, actions, descriptions, or other ideas that have more than just a grammatical usage. Their meaning is easily identified by a clear concept or item.

 

What are Lexical Words in English?

The categories of English words that are lexical include nouns, adjectives, most verbs, and many adverbs. Nouns, for example, refer to specified ideas, people, places, or things. The concepts behind words like "dog," "love," or "Brazil," for example, are very clear.
Adjectives describe nouns in well-defined ways, providing information about colors, texture, number, size, and so on. Likewise, adverbs can be lexical words if they specifically describe nouns or verbs. Because they evoke specific ideas, descriptors like "red," "quickly," "heavy," or "effectively" are considered lexical.
Most verbs also fall into the lexical category because they refer to specific actions. For example, the meanings of words like "think," "sing," "understand," and "jump" are easy to grasp.

What are Grammatical Words?

Grammatical words, also known as function words, have little definite meaning on their own and are ambiguous without context. Some also function to impart the speaker's attitude or perspective onto other words. These kinds of words define the structure of a sentence and relate lexical words to each other.

What are Grammatical Words in English?

Grammatical words include prepositions, modals and auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.
* Prepositions are used in a variety of ways, and often have ambiguous meanings dependent on the context.
* Auxiliary verbs like "be" and "have" are used to shift a verb's time, while modals like "should" or "will" also impact the sense of verb in various ways related to time or attitude.
* Pronouns have little meaning except as placeholders for general nouns. Articles also simply qualify nouns.
* Question words, like "why," alter the function of a sentence or replace a noun. Other adverbs can shift the time or other senses of the lexical words they are connected to.
* Conjunctions link parts of a sentence together by establishing logical relationships between lexical words.

How are Lexical and Grammatical Words Different?

Lexical words supply meaning to a sentence, whereas grammatical words relate the lexical words to one another. Look at the following sentence that only shows the lexical words: " ___ cat jumped ___ ___ tree ___ ___ dog ran ___." This looks like nonsense. All you know is that it is about jumping cats, running dogs, and trees. It may be possible to guess the complete meaning of the sentence, but you can't know for certain because cats, dogs, and trees can be related in different ways. Now look at the sentence with the grammatical words re-inserted: "The cat jumped into the tree as the dog ran forward." The sentence makes sense. Notice, however, that if you put a different set of grammatical words in, you get a completely different meaning: "The cat jumped from the tree after the dog ran away." You can see that the grammatical words clarify the logical relations between the lexical words and define their function in the sentence.
Although it's technical, the difference between lexical words and grammatical words is straightforward. It is an important concept for linguists because the distinction seems to exist in all languages, not just English. Understanding these differences helps scholars figure out the relationship between the different languages, as well as the history of the English language. It may even give some insight into how human minds work. Understanding these types of words will help increase your comprehension of English