This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2011)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011)

Function words (or grammatical words or synsemantic words or structure-class words) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. They signal the structural relationships that words have to one another and are the glue that holds sentences together. Thus, they serve as important elements to the structures of sentences. ^[1] Consider the following two sentences:

1. The winfy prunkilmonger from the glidgement mominkled and brangified all his levensers vederously.
2. Glop angry investigator larm blonk government harassed gerfritz infuriated sutbor pumrog listeners thoroughly.

In sentence (1) above, the content words have been changed into nonsense syllables but it is not difficult for one to posit that winfy is an adjective, prunkilmonger, glidgement, levensers as nouns, mominkled, brangified as verbs and vederously as an adverb based on clues like the derivational and inflectional morphemes. (The clue is in the suffixes: -y indicates adjectives such as "wintery"; -er, -ment and -ers indicates nouns such as "baker", "battlement" and "messengers"; -led and -fied suggests verbs such as "mingled" and "clarified"; and -ly is that of adverbs such as "vigorously"). Hence, even without lexical meaning, the sentence can be said to be rather "meaningful". However, when the reverse is done and the function words are being changed to nonsense syllables as in sentence (2), the result is a totally incomprehensible sentence as the grammatical meaning which is signaled by the structure words is not present. Hence, function words provide the grammatical relationships between the open class words and helps create meaning in sentences.

Words that are not function words are called content words (or open class words or lexical words or autosemantic words): these include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs, although some adverbs are function words (e.g., then and why). Dictionaries define the specific meanings of content words, but can only describe the general usages of function words. By contrast, grammars describe the use of function words in detail, but treat lexical words in general terms only.

Function words might be prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, grammatical articles or particles, all of which belong to the group of closed-class words. Interjections are sometimes considered function words but they belong to the group of open-class words. Function words might or might not be inflected or might have affixes.

Function words belong to the closed class of words in grammar in that it is very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech, whereas in the open class of words (that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs) new words may be added readily (such as slang words, technical terms, and adoptions and adaptations of foreign words). See neologism.

Each function word either gives some grammatical information on other words in a sentence or clause, and cannot be isolated from other words, or it may indicate the speaker's mental model as to what is being said.

Grammatical words, as a class, can have distinct phonological properties from content words. Grammatical words sometimes do not make full use of all the sounds in a language. For example, in some of the Khoisan languages, most content words begin with clicks, but very few function words do.^[2] In English, only function words begin with voiced th- [ð] (see Pronunciation of English th).

The following is a list of the kind of words considered to be function words:

• articles — the and a. In some inflected languages, the articles may take on the case of the declension of the following noun.
• pronouns — inflected in English, as he — him, she — her, etc.
• adpositions — uninflected in English
• conjunctions — uninflected in English
• auxiliary verbs — forming part of the conjugation (pattern of the tenses of main verbs), always inflected
• interjections — sometimes called "filled pauses", uninflected
• particles — convey the attitude of the speaker and are uninflected, as if, then, well, however, thus, etc.
• expletives — take the place of sentences, among other functions.
• pro-sentences — yes, okay, etc.

See also[link]

Look up function word in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Content word
• Stop word in computer science

References[link]

External links[link]

• List of function words

Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939 in Chennai, India sometimes spelt Subramaniam Swamy) is an Indian politician, academician and an economist.^[1] He is the President of the Janata Party of India. He also presently serves as chairman^[2] of the SCMS Board of Governors of the SCMS Group of Educational Institutions in Kerala.

Swamy has previously served as member of the Planning Commission of India and Cabinet Minister of India. He has written extensively on foreign affairs dealing largely with India-China, India-Pakistan and Indo-Israel relation and is also a published author.

In November 1978, Swamy was member of the Group of Eminent persons called to Geneva to prepare a report of the United Nations (UNCTAD) on Economic Co-operation between Developing countries (ECDC).Swamy simplified trade procedures and formulated a new export strategy which became the forerunner of trade reform adopted subsequently. In 1994, Swamy was appointed as Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade by then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. This was perhaps for the first time that an Opposition Party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party.

He is also known for his anti corruption activism.

Early life and education[link]

Subramanian Swamy was born in Mylapore, Chennai, India. His father Sitaram Subramanian^[3] is from Madurai, Tamil Nadu who was an Indian Statistical Service officer^[4] and retired as Director of the Central Statistical Institute.^[5][6] His mother Padmavati Subramanian^[4] belongs to Kerala Iyer family from Trichur, Kerala.

He attended Hindu College, University of Delhi, from where he earned his Bachelor Honours degree in Mathematics.^[5] He studied for his Masters degree in Statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute.^[5] He then went to study at Harvard University on a full Rockefeller scholarship.^[5] He received a Ph.D. in Economics in 1965. His thesis adviser was Nobel Laureate Simon Kuznets.^[7]

For some time, while completing his dissertation in 1963, he worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York as an Assistant Economics Affairs Officer. He subsequently worked as a resident tutor at Lowell House at Harvard university.

Academic career[link]

Professorships[link]

In 1964, Swamy joined the faculty of economics at Harvard and since then has taught in the Department of Economics.^[8] He began as an assistant professor in July 1966^[5][9] and in 1969 became an associate professor.^[10] When he was Associate Professor at Harvard University, he was invited by Noble Laureate Amartya Sen^[3] for reader’s chair on Chinese studies at Delhi School of Economics.^[4] He accepted the offer and came back. However, when he arrived for the position at DSE, his appointment was cancelled due to his views on the nuclear capabilities for India and market friendly attitude.^[3] Thereafter, he moved to the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and alongside to his teaching duties, he took special interest in talking to the hostel students. From 1969 to 1991, he was a Professor^[9] of mathematical economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.^[11] He was removed from the position by its board of Governors in the early 1970s but was legally reinstated in the late 1990s by the Supreme Court of India. He continued in the position until 1991 when he resigned to become a cabinet minister. He served on the Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi (1977–80), and on the Council of IITs (1980–82).

He taught economics courses in summer session at Harvard ^[12] until 2011. In December 2011, the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences removed his course from the Harvard Summer School course offerings in response to a controversial article he wrote, effectively ceasing his employment at Harvard.^[13]

Political career[link]

Early politics[link]

Swamy's career started with his involvement in Jayaprakash Narayan's Sarvodaya movement, which was an apolitical movement but which formed the foundation of the creation of Janta Party later.^[14]. The real turn in his political career came after his sacking from IIT. Liberal economic policies put forward by him didn't go well with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who discredited him as 'Santa Claus with unrealistic ideas'. As a result he was expelled from Indian Institute of Technology. This marked the beginning of his active political career. Staunch opponent of Indira Gandhi and right wing political party Jansangh sent him to Rajya Sabha - the upper house of Indian Parliament.^[3]

He was elected Member of Parliament 5 times between 1974 and 1999. He has twice represented the city of Mumbai North East during 1977 and 1980, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the Parliament.^[3]

During the period of emergency, he fled to America, seeking save haven with a Indian businessman in Michigan who had become the spokesperson of opposition in the US. In 1976 when emergency was still in force and an arrest warrant issued in his name, he came to parliament to attend the session and managed to escape India after attending the session. This act made him a hero in the eyes of opposition parties.

He was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and has been its president since 1990.^[3]

Minister of Commerce and Law of India[link]

Economic Reforms in India[link]

During 1990 and 1991 Swamy was a member of the Planning Commission of India and Cabinet Minister of Commerce and Law of India. During this period he created the blueprint^[15][16] for economic reforms in India under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar which was later carried out in 1991 by Manmohan Singh^[5], then Finance Minister under leadership of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.^[16] The current Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh recently stated that Dr. Swamy was the first to envisage and articulate the need for reforms in India.^[2][17]

Between 1994 and 1996, he held the position of "Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade" (equivalent to the rank of a cabinet minister) under the P. V. Narasimha Rao government.^[3] Dr. Swamy has been subject to several defamation cases. He is known to argue these cases himself without the agency of lawyers. In October 2004, he along with other members of the erstwhile Janata Party established the Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose the policies of the ruling UPA.

Issues held and contributions[link]

Foreign policy and affairs[link]

China and India[link]

He is known for his efforts in normalizing relations between China and India. In 1981, Indira Gandhi sought his help and upon which he persuaded Deng Xiaoping^[18] to open the Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet to the Hindu pilgrims from India.^[19] He became the first Indian on the reopening to visit Kailash and Mansarovar in 1981. In 1990–1991, he was a minister in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet and was in charge of the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Law and Justice.

Israel[link]

In his speeches and articles, Dr Swamy has expressed his admiration for Israel, and has credited its retaliatory capacity for its ability to survive in a hostile Arab environment. He made pioneering efforts at establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. In 1982, Dr. Swamy became the first Indian political leader to make publicized trip to Israel, where he met with some important Israeli leaders such as Yitzhak Rabin and then Prime Minister Menachem Begin. His efforts at normalizing relations with Israel have borne fruit now with India's decision in 1992 to open Embassies in the respective countries.^[20]

Revealing 2G spectrum scam[link]

In November 2008, Subramanian Swamy wrote the first of five letters to PM Manmohan Singh seeking permission to prosecute A. Raja in regards to the 2G spectrum scam.^[21] However, Singh took no action^[22], leading Swamy to file a case on his own in the Supreme Court of India regarding the matter, which then asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to produce a detailed report on the matter.^[23] He further called on the Indian government to re-auction the 2G spectrum without the involvement of Communications Minister Kapil Sibal.^[24]

Swamy has raised allegations that Sonia Gandhi's two sisters Anushka and Nadia have received sixty percent of the kickbacks in the 2G spectrum scam, amounting to Rs.18,000 crores each.^[25] On 15 April 2011, he filed a 206-page long petition with PM Singh seeking permission to prosecute Gandhi. In the petition, he claimed to have strong evidence of corrupt acts committed by Gandhi as early as 1972; he also raised doubts regarding her acquisition of Indian citizenship.^[26] At a lecture on corruption given on 29 May 2011, he again repeated his allegation against Sonia Gandhi, saying she has Rs.1 lakh crore stashed abroad.^[27] Most of Swamy's letters to the prime minister regarding this matter are backed up with full proof, which makes him defensive about his allegations.^[28]

Swamy filed various documents in the court to prosecute Minister of Home Affairs P.Chidambaram by including a January 15, 2008 letter written by Chidambaram to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Swamy also placed on record the certified copy of the minutes of a meeting between Chidambaram, Raja and the Prime Minister during the tenure of Raja as the MOC&IT. ^[29]After supreme court verdict cancelling all 122 licences awarded during A Raja tenure, Cho Ramaswamy described Subramanian swamy as not only man of the match but man of the series.^[30]

Supreme court petition in 2G scam[link]

On January 31, 2012, the Supreme Court of India accepted Swamy's petition against the Prime Minister's Office in the 2G case, saying that all public authorities should give a sanction within 3 months against any public official if a request is made for prosecution. The Supreme Court said that Subramanian Swamy had the locus to seek sanction from the Prime Minister for the prosecution of A Raja in the 2G scam. Sanction by a competent authority for the prosecution of a public servant has to be granted within a time frame, the apex court said. Justice A K Ganguly said that the sanction would be deemed to be granted if competent authority failed to take a decision within four months. Swamy's arguments were that he wrote to the PMO on November 29, 2008 but it was only on March 19, 2010 the PMO replied that the plea made by Swamy was "premature" as investigation was being carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Raja was arrested by the CBI in the case and got bail on 15th May 2012 after spending nearly 15 months in the Tihar Central Jail.^[31]

Views on Kashmir[link]

In September 2008, Dr. Swamy stridently retorted against the contentions of some Indian columnists who voiced their opinions in favour of "peacefully" surrendering Kashmir to Pakistan. He said,

"I would say that the silent suffering majority of India wants none of this. The ‘Kashmir issue,’ in fact, can no more be solved by dialogue either with the Pakistanis or the Hurriyat, leave alone the constitutional impossibility of allowing it to secede. [...]Kashmir, in fact, is now our defining identity. It is a touchstone for our resolve to preserve our national integrity. The population of that State may be majority Muslim but the land and its history is predominantly Hindu. For our commitment to the survival of the ancient civilisation of India and the composite culture that secularists talk of, we have not only to win that coming inevitable war but also resolve never to part with Kashmir. [...]

I will not blame the jihadis for the coming war. They are, after all, programmed that way by their understanding of Islamist theology. I will blame ourselves for not understanding their understanding of the fundamentals of Islam. [...]

Pakistanis often cite the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir to argue for a plebiscite. This obfuscates the fact of accession of the State to India. The legality of the Instrument of Accession signed in favour of India by the then Maharaja of J&K, Hari Singh, on October 26, 1947 has to prevail anyway. "^[32]

Controversial Article and Its Impacts[link]

Article about 2011 Mumbai bombings[link]

In response to the 2011 Mumbai bombings, he wrote an editorial in Daily News and Analysis (DNA) Some of Swamy’s Controversial suggestions in the article.

• The Hindu is the target and that Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus.
• Remove Article 370, and re-settle ex-servicemen in the Valley. Create Panun Kashmir for Hindu Pandit community. Look or create opportunity to take over PoK. If Pakistan continues to back terrorists, assist the Baluchis and Sindhis to struggle for independence.
• Remove the masjid in Kashi Vishwanath temple complex, and 300 others in other sites as a tit-for-tat.
• Make Sanskrit learning compulsory and singing of Vande Mataram mandatory, and declare India as Hindu Rashtra in which only those non-Hindus can vote if they proudly acknowledge that their ancestors are Hindus. Rename India as Hindustan as a nation of Hindus and those whose ancestors are Hindus.

• Enact a national law prohibiting conversion from Hindu religion to any other religion.

Propagate the development of a Hindu mindset ^[33][34]. Swamy had written a similar column in The New Indian Express after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Negative reactions[link]

His column provoked a variety of reactions. His house was attacked by people alleged to be Congress party workers.^[35] Minorities Council of Maharashtra Vice Chairman Abraham Mathai and National Commission for Minorities chairman Wajahat Habibullah accused him of violating Indian Penal Code Section 153A.^[36][37] New Delhi law student Shehzad Poonawala attempted to lodge an FIR against him at Defence Colony police station, but was disallowed by the officer on duty.^[37] DNA published two hostile response columns by Rakesh Sharma and Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr. calling him a "Hindu Taliban", "maverick", and "Zionist" in response to his views.^[38][39]

Controversy at Harvard[link]

Some students at his alma mater Harvard University, where he also teaches economics in the summer school, accused him of stoking communalism and circulated a petition calling on the university to fire him and publicly repudiate his remarks. Two PhD students, Umang Kumar and Sanjay Pinto, started an online petition asking for the removal of courses taught by Dr Swamy, which received more than 450 signatures from students and faculty.^[40][41] Adam Kissel, on behalf of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, wrote in a letter to Harvard that a disciplinary investigation against him would be inappropriate for an academic institution dedicated to intellectual freedom, represented a threat to free speech, and could lead to self-censorship by other faculty members.^[42]

In response to the petition, Donald H. Pfister, dean of Harvard Summer School, stated that the school would "give this matter our serious attention", and decided to stand by its instructor.^[35] On Tuesday, 6 December 2011, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to exclude Subramanian Swamy's summer school courses from its catalog.^[43][44][45] The Op-Ed was considered more to be a case of hate speech rather than free speech. 'I was persuaded... that the views expressed in Dr Swamy's op-ed piece amounted to incitement of violence instead of protected political speech,' Philosophy Department Chair Sean D Kelly wrote in an e-mail to the Crimson.^[46] Comparative Religion Professor Diana Eck said, "Swamy's op-ed [piece] clearly crosses the line by demonising an entire religious community and calling for violence against their sacred places".^[47] Swamy described the move as "nothing serious", saying "non-economists at Harvard don't like my views on how to protect India".^[48]

Views on Tamil Nadu Politics[link]

He is well known for his critical views against the Government of Tamil Nadu and against the "Aryan versus Dravidian" brand of divisive politics of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.

He was staunch opponent of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.^[49][50]

He obtained Supreme Court Stay against the implementation of Sethu Samuthiram Shipping Channel project (SSSCP). He believes that it would hurt the sentiments of people who believe that this shallow land connecting between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka was built by Lord Rama. He strongly opposes the implementation of SSSCP citing that implementing this scheme may affect the sentiments of Hinduism. He wrote letters to Prime Minister of India in June 2009 asking him to stop the project.^[51]. He has also strongly urged the Supreme Court of India to declare this Rama-Sethu as a National heritage & historical monument.

Family and Personal life[link]

Dr.Swamy married Dr. Roxna Swamy (a Parsi) in June 1966 whom he met at Harvard. Then she had obtained Ph.D in Maths ^[52] who is presently an advocate at the Supreme Court of India. They have two daughters, Dr. Gitanjali Swamy who is married to Sanjay Sarma, a professor at MIT and Suhasini Haider, a senior editor at CNN-IBN is married to Nadeem Haidar who is a son of Salman Haider, former foreign secretary and external affairs minister.^[53] His brother-in-law is Jewish, his son-in-law Muslim, his sister-in-law Christian, and his wife Parsi.^[40]

Honours, awards and international recognition[link]

Books, Research Papers and Journals[link]

Subramanian Swamy is a published author of several books, research papers and journals. A complete list of papers, books and journals is included below to which he is the author.

Books[link]

• Economic Growth in China and India, 1952–70 (Publisher: University of Chicago Press; ISBN 978-0-226-78315-4)
• Indian economic planning;: An alternative approach (Publisher: Barnes & Noble; ISBN 978-0-389-04202-0)
• Building a New India: An Agenda for National Renaissance (Publisher: South Asia Books; ISBN 978-81-85674-21-6)
• India's Labour Standards and the WTO Framework (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN 978-81-220-0585-1)
• India's economic performance and reforms: A perspective for the new millennium (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN 978-81-220-0594-3)
• Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: Unanswered Questions and Unasked Queries (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN 978-81-220-0591-2)
• India's China perspective (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN 978-81-220-0606-3)
• Financial Architecture and Economic Development in China and India (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN 978-81-220-0718-3)
• Trade and Industry in Japan: A Guide to Indian Entrepreneurs and Businessmen (Publisher: Prentice-Hall of India; ISBN 978-81-203-0785-8)
• Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's Options (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN 978-81-241-1260-1)
• Kailas and Manasarovar after 22 years in Shiva's domain (Publisher: Allied Publishers)
• Hindus Under Siege (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN 978-81-241-1207-6)
• Rama Setu: Symbol of National Unity (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN 978-81-241-1418-6)
• Terrorism in India: A Strategy of Deterrence for India's National Security (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN 978-81-241-1344-8)
• Corruption and Corporate Governance in India: Satyam, Spectrum & Sundaram (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN 978-81-241-1486-5)
• 2G Spectrum Scam (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN 978-81-241-1638-8)
• Electronic voting machines: unconstitutional and tamperable (Publisher: Vision Books; ISBN 978-81-7094-798-1)

Article, Research Papers and Journals[link]

Article[link]

• Can India make it? India's path to sustained growth (Publisher: Harvard Asia Pacific review, Volumes 6-8 by Harvard University. Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, 2002)
• The response to economic challenge: A comparative economic history of China and India, 1870-1952 (Publisher: The Quarterly journal of economics, Volume 93 by Harvard University by the MIT Press, 1979)

Research Papers[link]

• Economic growth and income distribution in a developing nation (Publisher: Harvard University, 1965)
• Nuclear policy for India (Publisher: Bharatiya Jana Sangh Publication, 1968)
• Plan for full employment (Publisher: Bharatiya Jana Sangh, 1970)
• Theoretical aspects of index numbers (Publisher: Harvard Institute of Economic Research, 1985)
• Land reforms: an economist's approach (Publisher: Deendayal Research Institute)

References[link]

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	India portal

• Official Twitter Account @Swamy39
• Bio-Data at Janata Party website
• Official Biographical Sketch of Member of 12th Lok Sabha: Swamy

Others[link]

• Subramanian Swamy collected laws and court judgements at Indian Kanoon
• Subramanian Swamy collected news and commentary at India Today
• Subramanian Swamy collected news and commentary at The Times of India
• Subramanian Swamy collected news and commentary at Tehelka
• Subramanian Swamy collected news and commentary at The Hindu