[Movie] This Famous Medieval Book May Be a Hoax

[Torsten]

Function words are words that don't carry lexical meaning themselves, but instead serve a grammatical role — structuring the sentence and clarifying relationships between words.

Sure.  But here is what the dictionary says about the first function word of Mandarin that I picked at random with Google, 
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1. along [preposition]
   
2. to follow (a line, tradition etc) [verb]
   
3. to carry on [verb]
   
4. to trim (a border with braid, tape etc) [verb]
   
5. border [noun? adjective?]
   
6. edge [noun]
   

Indeed, many present function words were once content words in ancient Chinese, that is, they could individually convey certain meanings. However, that historical origin doesn’t change the fact that even in ancient Chinese, it’s possible to trace grammatical rules and structural patterns. The evolution from content word to function word is a common linguistic process, but the presence of grammar — and the ability to analyze word order and syntactic structure — has always been essential for meaningful communication.

Regards,
Torsten