The kind of meaning associated with elements in the conceptual content system, as encoded by open class forms.

Meaning of this kind is rich in nature and thus contrasts with the meaning associated with elements in the conceptual structuring system as encoded by closed class forms. Content meaning relates to concepts having to do with things, people, places, events, properties of things and so on. For instance, compare the following two sentences:

1. The movie star kiss ed the director s.

1. The sunbeam illuminat ed the rooftop s.

The grammatical structure of these two sentences is identical (the closed class or ‘grammatical’ words are highlighted in bold). For instance, both participants in the events described by these sentences can easily be identified by the hearer; the event took place before now; there’s only one movie star/ sunbeam but more than one director/rooftop. Yet the sentences differ in a rather dramatic way. They no longer describe the same kind of event at all. This is because the open class forms (unbolded in these sentences) prompt for certain kinds of concepts that are richer and less schematic in nature. That is, the unbolded elements are associated with content meaning.