FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

2. Functional theories of grammar
 Are those approaches to the study of language that see
the function of language and its elements to be key to
understanding linguistic processes and structures.
 It differs from formal theories of grammar.
 This means that functional theories of grammar tend
to pay attention to the way language is actually used in
communicative context, and not just to the formal
relations between linguistic elements.

3. Functional Grammar(FG) and
Functional Discourse Grammar(FDG)
 Are grammar models and theories motivated by
functional theories of grammar.
 Functional discourse grammar has been developed as
successor to functional grammar, attempting to be
more psychologically and pragmatically adequate than
functional grammar.
 The top-level unit analysis in functional discourse
grammar is the discourse move, not the sentence or
the clause.

4. HISTORY
 Functional grammar is a model of a grammar
motivated by functions. The model is originally
developed by Simon C. Dik at the University of
Amsterdam in the 1970s, and has undergone several
revisions since then.
 The latest version features the expansion of the model
with a pragmatic/interpersonal module by Kees
Hengeveld and Lachlan Mackenzie.

5. Constituents of a linguistic utterance
are assigned three types or levels of
functions:
 1. Semantic Function (Agent, Patient, Recipient, etc.),
describing the role of participants in states if affairs or
action expressed.
 2. Syntactic functions(Subject and Object), defining
different perspectives in the presentation of a
linguistic expression.
 3. Pragmatic function(Theme and Tail, Topic and
Focus), defining the informational status of
constituents, determined by the pragmatic context of
the verbal interaction.

6. Systematic functional
grammar (SFG)
 Is a form of grammatical description by Michael
Halliday. It is part of a social semiotic approach to
language called systemic functional linguistics.

7. Danish Functional Linguistics
 Is an open research community which has existed since
1989 at the southern (Amager) campus University of
Copenhagen.
 Among the central features is the assumption that
languages are essentially means of pragmatic interaction,
which are specially designed to draw on the cognitive
systems of language users in ways that constitute a
structured potential for use. Actual practice and linguistic
potential mutually presuppose each other: the structured
potential is distilled out of ongoing practice, and actual
practice only functions if users can draw on the stored
potential.

8.  Since the structural revolution in early 20th
century, linguistics has been divided into
approaches based on the autonomy thesis and
approaches focusing on language as a medium for
cognitive, communicative and social processes. On
both sides of the divide there has been a gradual
increase in the level of sophistication, theoretically
as well as empirically. Among other things, the
emergence of the umbrella discipline of cognitive
science has sparked off a new development where
the description of language is part of an integrated
exploration of the overall cognitive potential of the
human mind.

9.  Since 1989 a number of Danish linguists based in RUC,
CBS, and University of Copenhagen, have formed a
research community that has made a distinctive
contribution to the development of linguistics by
exploring how morphosyntactic, semantic and
pragmatic features of language can be integrated into
an overall approach based on function.

10.  Structural features may present misleading picture of
language when they are artificially isolated from the
rest but they have an important role to play if they are
seen as ways of structuring and formalizing functional
properties of languages. In the bibliography are listed
a number of books and articles where Danish linguists
associated with the functional linguistic working
community have discussed issues in modern
linguistics.

11. Lexical functional grammar (LFG)
 Is a grammar framework in theoretical linguistics, a
variety of generative grammar. It is a type of phrase
structure grammar, as opposed to a dependency
grammar the development of theory was initiated by
Joan Bresnan and Ronald Kaplan in the 1970s, in
reaction to the direction research in the area of
transformational grammar had begun to take.

12. The primary structures that have
figured in LFG research are:
 The representation of grammatical
functions (f-structure).
 The structure of syntactic constituents (c-structure)

13. For example, in the sentence The old woman eats
the falafel, the c-structure analysis is that this is a
sentence which is made up of two pieces, a noun
phrase (np)and a verb phrase (VP). The VP itself
made up two pieces, a verb(V) and another NP. The
NPs analyzed into their parts. Finally, the bottom of
the structure is composed of the words out of which
the sentence is constructed. The f-structure analysis,
on the other hand, treats the sentence as being
composed of attributes, which include features such
as number and tense or functional units such as
subject, predicate, or object.

14. There are other structures which are
hypothesized in LFG work:
 Argument structure (a-structure), a level which
represents the number of arguments for a
predicate and some aspects of the lexical
semantics of these arguments.
 Semantic structure (s-structure), a level which
represents the meaning of phrases and sentences.
 Information structure (i-structure)
 Morphological structure (m-structure)
 Phonological structure (p-structure)

15.  The LFG conception of language differs from
Chomskyan theories, which have always involved
separate levels of constituent structure representation
being mapped onto each other sequentially, via
transformations.
 Another feature of LFG is that grammatical function
changing operations like passivation are said to be
lexical.
 Through the positing of productive processes in the
lexicon and the separation of structure and function,
LFG is able to account for syntactic patterns without
the use of transformations defined over syntactic
structure.

16.  A central goal in LFG research is to create a model of
grammar with a depth which appeals to linguists while
at the same time being efficiently parsable and having
the rigidity of formalism which computational
linguists require.

17. Role and Reference Grammar (RRG)
 Is a model of grammar developed by William Foley and
Robert Van Valin Jr. in the 1980s, which incorporates many of
the points of view of current functional grammar theories.
 In RRG, the description of a sentence in a particular language
is formulated in terms of (a) its logical (semantic) structure
and communicative functions, and (b) the grammatical
procedures that are available in the language for the
expression of these meanings.
 Among the main features of RRG are the use of lexical
decomposition, based upon the predicate semantics of David
Dowty(1979), an analysis of clause structure, and the use of a
set of thematic roles organized into a hierarchy in which the
highest-ranking roles are ‘Actor’ (for the most active
participant) and ‘Undergoer’.

19. IMPLICATIONS:
Firstly, it is based on the
notion of choice - it models
grammar as a set of options
(a repertoire or resource).

20. Secondly, functional
grammar looks at the way
in which grammar is used
to construct texts in
their context of use

21. Thirdly, functional
grammar is concerned
with the way in which
grammar is organized
to make meaning.

22. Overall, functional grammar is concerned with
the way that the different kinds of meaning that
contribute to grammatical structure are
comprehensively addressed. It is concerned with
resources for
a. analysing experience
b. analysing interaction
c. analysing the ways in which messages
are constructed