Lexical Content Words

In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up the largest part of the vocabulary. They are the content words of language, which are sometimes called the open class of lexical items because we can and regularly do add new words to them. Modem, for example, was added to the class of nouns as a result of developments in personal computing. New verbs such as to decriminalize, to jackpot, to breathalyze have been added to australian English in the past few years. New adverbs such as weather wise and sales wise have been added, as well as adjectives such as biodegradable, bottom-of-the-harbour and Claytons.