Grammatical Functions
Functions exist on all levels of grammar, and even in phonology, where the function of the phoneme is to distinguish between lexical material.
- Semantic function: (Agent, Patient, Recipient, etc.), describing the role of participants in states of affairs or actions expressed.
- Syntactic functions: (e.g. subject and Object), defining different perspectives in the presentation of a linguistic expression
- Pragmatic functions: (Theme and Rheme, Topic and Focus) Predicate), defining the informational status of constituents, determined by the pragmatic context of the verbal interaction.
Read more about this topic: Functional Theories Of Grammar
Famous quotes containing the words grammatical and/or functions:
“As a particularly dramatic gesture, he throws wide his arms and whacks the side of the barn with the heavy cane he uses to stab at contesting bidders. With more vehemence than grammatical elegance, he calls upon the great god Caveat Emptor to witness with what niggardly stinginess these flinty sons of Scotland make cautious offers for what is beyond any question the finest animal ever beheld.”
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)