User blog:EmperorZelos/Words

Quick Discussion about words in a language

Above you can the most commonly used words in english and their ranking. If you look closely you will notice one thing about all of the most commonly used words in the language. They are ALL structural, it is not until at place 57 you find a CONTENT word which is "time". Some might say it is already at 22/24 where had/are is but those are structural verbs and serve for the structure of the language mostly hence is still considered structural.

In case anyone wonders structural words provide very little to no information at all on their own and is depended on other words for the meaning they provide. For example "above" is structural for the reason that it cannot alone provide any info and is depended on a content word to say that it is relative to it while "TV" is a content word because it is simply just a device, something contental that is easy to say that "that machine is a TV" while if you try to explain "Above" to someone who have no such concept its nearly impossible without using the word itself.

Why I bring this up is because many conlangers focus on content word over structural words while in reality itis the structural ones you use most. When you make a language focus on ensuring you got structural words ready so content ones have something to rest on.