This type of vocabulary is large, constantly updated with new words, consists almost exclusively of content words ( i . e ., nouns, verbs, and adjectives ), and has a low degree of commonality across users ( Blackstone, 1988 ).
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But if one opens up a dictionary at random and picks out a content word, chances are that it names a category we have learned to detect, rather than one that our brains were innately prepared in advance by evolution to detect.
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They are part of the Classical Chinese category of " empty words, " or " xkz?" ( [ �W [ ), along with prepositions, numerals and measure words . ( Compare the similar notion of the contrast between function words and content words .)
34.
For an understanding of this process, a distinction needs to be made between lexical items, or content words, which carry specific lexical meaning, and grammatical items, or function words, with little or no lexical meaning, which serve to express grammatical relationships between the different words within an utterance.
35.
Content words of Chinese and native Japanese origin tend to be written in Kanji; function words, grammatical endings, and some other words tend to be written in Hiragana; and loanwords from non-Asian languages as well as words for kinds of animals ( " dog ", " cat ", " octopus ", etc . ) tend to be written in Katakana.
