Functional linguistics

FUNCTIONAL
LINGUISTICS
WORKED BY IRAM RASHEED

INTRODUCTION
• MEANING IS THE PRIMARY DRIVER OF FORM IN LANGUAGE..
• FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS IS FOCUSED ON DERIVING GRAMMATICAL
SYNTACTICAL AND TEXTUAL STRUCTURES FROM THE WAYS IN WHICH
LANGUAGE IS USED.
• SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS IS AN APPROACH TO LINGUISTICS
THAT CONSIDERS LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM.
• THE LABEL “SYSTEMIC” IS RELATED TO THE SYSTEM NETWORKS USED IN
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE LEXICO-GRAMMAR OF HUMAN LANGUAGES.

COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTION OF
LANGUAGE
 HALLIDAY STATES THAT LANGUAGE IS THE STUDY OF HOW PEOPLE
EXCHANGE MEANINGS THROUGH THE USE OF LANGUAGE.
oEXAMPLE:
THE BOY ATE THE BREAD IN THE KITCHEN.
STATEMENTS…. THE BOY IS EATING THE BREAD.
COMMANDS… EAT THE BREAD!
QUESTIONS… IS THE BOY EATING THE BREAD???

THEORETICAL CLAIMS…..
• FOUR MAIN THEORETICAL CLAIMS ABOUT LANGUAGE ARE THERE….
1. THE LANGUAGE USE IS FUNCTIONAL.
2. ITS FUNCTION IS TO MAKE MEANINGS.
3. THESE MEANINGS ARE INFLUENCED BY THE SOCIAL AND
CULTURAL CONTEXT IN WHICH THEY ARE EXCHANGED.
4. THE PROCESS OF USING LANGUAGE IS A SEMIOTIC PROCESS, A
PROCESS OF MAKING MEANING BY CHOOSING..

DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC THEORY IN
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
 MANY LINGUISTS HOLD THE FACT THAT LANGUAGE IS USED FOR
COMMUNICATION IS LARGELY IRRELEVANT TO ITS ANALYSIS. “HOW DID SUCH A
VIEW ARISE??”
 THREE MAIN THEORISTS WERE THERE…..
 SAUSSURE DREW A FUNDAMENTAL CONTRAST BETWEEN LANGUAGE (LANGUE)
AND SPEAKING (PAROLE).
 BLOOMFIELD (1933) PROPOSED A SIMILAR DISTINCTION: GRAMMAR(THE
LINGUISTIC SYSTEM) VS. MEANING (THE USE OF THE SYSTEM ON PARTICULAR
OCCASIONS)
 CHOMSKY (1965) PROPOSED A DISTINCTION ANALOGOUS BUT NOT IDENTICAL
TO SAUSSURE’S AND BLOOMFIELD’S, NAMELY COMPETENCE VS. PERFORMANCE.

RELATION OF THEIR DISTINCTION WITH
COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTION OF
LANGUAGE…
 HOW CAN THE VARIOUS COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE BE
INCORPORATED INTO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURE??
 THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONS DEFINING A STRUCTURAL SYSTEM ARE CO-
OCCURRENCE (SYNTAGMATIC) AND SUBSTITUTION(PARADIGMATIC) (SAUSSURE)
 SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS DEFINE THE FRAME IN WHICH PARADIGMATIC
RELATION EXIST.
 PHONEMES MORPHEMES WORDS SENTENCES DISCOURSE /SPEECH
EVENTS.
•
Langue
Grammar
competence
Parole
Meaning
performance

DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC THEORY IN
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
• THE IDEA OF EXTENDING LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS TO INCLUDE
COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTION WAS FIRST PROPOSED BY CZECH LINGUIST
METHESIUS (PART OF PRAGUE SCHOOL)
• HE AND HIS SUCCESSORS DEVELOPED THE THEORY OF FUNCTIONAL
SENTENCE PERSPECTIVE.
• THIS THEORY WAS FIRST BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF ENGLISH-
SPEAKING LINGUISTS IN HALLIDAY (1967); KUNO (1972A, 1972B) AND
CHAFE (1972) APPLIED THEM TO ISSUES THAT WERE OF CONCERN TO
THEORETICAL LINGUISTS IN THE US AT THAT TIME. BY THE END OF THE
1970S, A NUMBER OF FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES WERE EMERGING IN
BOTH THE US AND WESTERN EUROPE.

FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES
 THERE ARE THREE APPROACHES…
 FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR BY ( DIK 1978,1989)
 ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR BY FOLEY AND VAN VALIN
 SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR BY HALLIDAY
 FG AND RRG ARE MODERATE FUNCTIONAL THEORIES. THESE THEORIES REJECT THE
CONCEPTIONS OF GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE, BUT EACH PROPOSES DIFFERENT
REPLACEMENT VIEW OF STRUCTURE.
 FG VIEW OF LANGUAGE: THE LANGUAGE SYSTEM IS NOT CONSIDERED AS AN
AUTONOMOUS SET OF RULES RATHER IT IS ASSUMED THAT THE RULES CAN ONLY BE
UNDERSTOOD WHEN THEY ARE ANALYZED IN TERMS OF CONDITIONS OF USE.
 RRG IS CONCERNED NOT ONLY WITH RELATIONS OF CO-OCCURRENCE AND
COMBINATION IN STRICTLY FORMAL TERMS BUT ALSO WITH SEMANTIC AND
PRAGMATIC CO-OCCURRENCE AND COMBINATION RELATIONS.

FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES
• SFG TAKES A STRONGLY DISCOURSE-ORIENTED VIEW OF LANGUAGE.
• HALLIDAY MAINTAINS THAT THE ULTIMATE EXPLANATIONS OF
LINGUISTIC PHENOMENA ARE TO BE FOUND IN LANGUAGE USE.
• LANGUAGE HAS EVOLVED TO SATISFY HUMAN NEEDS; AND THE WAY
IT IS ORGANIZED IS FUNCTIONAL WITH RESPECT TO THESE NEEDS – IT
IS NOT ARBITRARY. A FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR IS ESSENTIALLY A
“NATURAL” GRAMMAR, IN THE SENSE THAT EVERYTHING IN IT CAN BE
EXPLAINED, ULTIMATELY, BY REFERENCE TO HOW LANGUAGE IS USED.
• ACCORDING TO HALLIDAY THERE ARE THREE METAFUNCTIONS OF
LANGUAGE;
• IDEATIONAL , INTERPERSONAL, TEXTUAL METAFUNCTIONS.

FORMAL VS FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES
FUNCTIONALIST:
• THOSE LINGUISTS WHO BELIEVE LANGUAGE AS SYSTEM OF
COMMUNICATION AND TAKE THE COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS OF
LANGUAGE TO BE IMPORTANT FOR ITS ANALYSIS.
FORMALISTS:
• CONSIDER THE COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE TO BE
IRRELEVANT TO ITS ANALYSIS, FOLLOWING CHOMSKY.

CONCLUSION
 ALL FUNCTIONALISTS AGREE THAT LANGUAGE IS A
SYSTEM OF FORMS FOR CONVEYING MEANING IN
COMMUNICATION AND THEREFORE THAT IN ORDER TO
UNDERSTAND IT, IT IS NECESSARY TO INVESTIGATE THE
INTERACTION OF STRUCTURE, MEANING AND
COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTION.

Functional linguistics

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Functional linguistics