Functional grammar, proposed by Simon Dik, analyzes linguistic constituents for their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic functions. Other functional grammars include Systemic Functional Grammar and Danish functional linguistics. Linguistic utterances have conceptual, grammatical, contextual, and output components.
Functional grammar is a linguistic theory first proposed in the 1970s by a Dutch linguist named Simon Dik. It was renamed Functional Discourse Grammar in the 1990s, but the theory can go by both names. This theory is called functional because it states that all constituents, be they affixes, words, phrases or sentences, have semantic, syntactic and pragmatic functions. Functional grammarians can analyze linguistic statements as pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic, or phonological.
Several linguistic theories are also known as functional grammars, as opposed to formal grammars. The most famous of these is Systemic Functional Grammar, which was first published by British linguist Michael Halliday in 1961. Other functional grammars include Danish functional linguistics, lexical functional grammar, and role and reference grammar. These are not to be confused with the theory of functional grammar as described by Dik while he held the chair of general linguistics at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands from 1969 to 1994.
According to Dik’s functional grammar, each constituent has a semantic, syntactic and pragmatic function. Semantic function refers to the role participants play in the action of the sentence, such as the agent or the addressee. The various perspectives, such as subject or object, are analyzed as a syntactic function. The pragmatic function concerns the meaning of the constituent in reference to its context.
Conceptual, grammatical, contextual and output components are present in every linguistic utterance. The conceptual component is the idea that the speaker wants to communicate to his audience. A concept to be shared must come first, or no linguistic statement will be made.
In the grammatical component, the concept is formed into words through four steps. First, words are constructed interpersonally, taking into account the context, through pragmatics. Second, each word and phrase is checked for meaning at the representational level during semantic switching. At the third level, the morphosyntactic passage, syntax and morphology are taken into account. Finally, the phonological level considers the sound of a linguistic utterance.
The contextual component is the portion of the utterance that can be understood only with reference to what has already been shared in the conversation or to a shared knowledge of the environment. All pronouns are part of the contextual component because they require knowledge of a previous antecedent. The last component of Functional Grammar is the output component, where all the other pieces come together as a linguistic statement, be it spoken, written or signed.
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