GRAMMAR 1

SESSION 4: FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Huyen

FUNCTIONAL
GRAMMAR
Traditional Grammar vs. Functional Grammar
◦ Traditional grammar focuses on prescriptive rules for correct
language usage.
◦ Functional grammar focuses on how language communicates
meanings in different contexts.
◦ Both approaches analyze syntax, semantics, and morphology,
but functional grammar also takes into account the social and
situational factors influencing language production.
◦ Another key difference is that traditional grammar is more
concerned with form, while functional grammar emphasizes the
function of language structures.
 Basic correspondences
◦ When we speak or write to each other, we perform acts
through words → speech acts.
◦ General types of speech act: statements, questions,
exclamations, and directives.
Basic correspondences (Cont)
 Speech acts
◦ Speech acts are the acts we perform through words. Certain
general types of speech acts are basic to everyday interaction;
there are statements, questions, exclamations, and directives.
◦ Each of these basic speech acts is associated in the grammar
with a type of clause: the declarative is typically used to encode
a statement, the interrogative a question, the imperative a
directive, and the exclamative an exclamation.
◦ These are the direct correspondences between form and
function that we refer to as direct speech acts.
 Speech acts (Cont)
◦ It considers the degree to which utterances (acts of
speech) are said to perform locutionary
acts, illocutionary acts, and/or perlocutionary acts.
◦ In each of these, the acts can either be direct or
indirect, which quantifies how effective they are at
conveying the speaker's message to its intended
audience.
 Speech acts (Cont)
◦ Indirect correspondences are also common in English. Thus
declaratives, as well as encoding statements, can be used to ask
questions, utter exclamations, and issue directives, in addition to
other speech acts such as promising and warning. In such cases,
the form is used to convey an ‘intended meaning’ or
‘illocutionary force’.
◦ E.g. You’re staying here, then?
◦ It has the form of declarative – but, with appropriate intonation,
the force is that of a question, as is indicated by the punctuation.
The relationship between clause type and force is therefore not
one-to-one but many-to-many.
 Speech acts (Cont)
◦ Even more indirectly, the words we use do not always
fully express our intended speech act.
E.g. It’s cold in here.
◦ This might be intended and interpreted as a request to
turn up the heating. Hearers use inference to recover
the intended meaning at specific points in a
conversation, based on assumptions of
cooperativeness, truth, relevance, and cultural
knowledge.
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
◦ A locutionary act is the act of making a meaningful utterance
consisting of the verbal employment of units of expression such as
words and sentences.
◦ Locutionary acts should not be meaningless speech but should
have a purpose, either seeking to bolster an argument, express
an opinion, or cause someone to take action.

1. Don't go into the water

2. The coffee tastes great.
3. How are you, sir?
 Locutionary Acts have meaning
◦ Asking for answering a question;
◦ Giving some information or an assurance or a warning;
◦ Announcing a verdict or an intention;
◦ Pronouncing a sentence;
◦ Making an appointment, an appeal, or a criticism;
◦ Making an identification or giving a description.
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
◦ An illocutionary act refers to the use of a sentence to
express an attitude with a certain function or "force," called
an illocutionary force, which differs from locutionary acts in
that they carry a certain urgency and appeal to the
meaning and direction of the speaker.
◦ An illocutionary act is the underlying intention or purpose of
an utterance.
E.g.
◦ The baby is crying.
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
◦ The illocutionary act can take many forms:
◦ making a promise,
◦ giving an order,
◦ asking a question,
◦ making a suggestion,
◦ apologizing,
◦ Thanking, etc.
◦ The type of illocutionary act depends on the speaker's intention
and the context in which the utterance is made.
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
◦ Perlocutionary acts, on the other hand, bring consequences to
the audience such as saying, "I will not be your friend."
In this instance, the impending loss of friendship is an
illocutionary act while the effect of frightening the friend into
compliance is a perlocutionary act.
◦ A perlocutionary act is a type of speech act that refers to
the effect or impact that an utterance has on the listener or the
broader social context. It is the act of using language to achieve
a particular outcome (e.g. change someone’s mind) or influence
the behavior or attitudes of others.
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
◦ The perlocutionary act can take many forms:
◦ persuading,
◦ inspiring,
◦ calming,
◦ comforting,
◦ arousing,
◦ offending, or
◦ upsetting.
◦ The type of perlocutionary act depends on the speaker’s
intention, the context, and the listener’s interpretation.
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
Locutionary act is the production of meaningful utterances and
expressions (E.g. “Go away!”, “Come here”, “Who are you?”, etc.)
→ Leading to illocutionary act – the intention of producing
meaningful expression (promise, offering, etc),
→ Causing the performance of perlocutionary act – the effect of
the locutionary and illocutionary act (behavior, feeling, belief,
etc).
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
Identify the type of the following utterances and explain
your ideas:
1. 'If you release the children, we'll allow the press to
publish your demands,’ says the police negotiator.
2. ‘Please find the black cat!’
3. ‘Fire!’, shouts a woman.
4. The sky is blue.
 Speech-act theory (Cont)
A: The doorbell’s ringing.
B: I’m in the bath.
A: Okay, I’ll go.
◦ A’s first utterance is to be interpreted as a directive to B: ‘Answer the
door’.
◦ B’s utterance counts as a statement explaining why she can’t answer
the door (‘I’m in the bath’), at the same time implying that A should
answer the door.
◦ A’s second utterance shows that he has inferred the implied request
and will comply with it.
Notice that neither participant has made specific reference to
answering the door.
 Relationship Between Speaker and Listener
◦ Because perlocutionary and illocutionary acts depend on the
audience's reaction to a given speech, the relationship between
speaker and listener is important to understand in the context of
such acts of speech.
◦ The old adage "know your audience" becomes especially
relevant in understanding discourse theory, and indeed in
composing a good speech or speaking well in general.
◦ For the illocutionary act to be effective, the speaker must use
language that his or her audience will understand as intended.
Michael Halliday
◦ British-born Australian linguist
◦ Describes language as a ‘meaning
potential’
◦ → Linguistics is the study of how people
exchange meanings by ‘languaging’.
◦ His early work involved the study of his
son’s developing language abilities.
Overview of Functional Grammar
◦ Functional grammar, as explained by Halliday (1994) is
concerned with meanings.
◦ Functional grammar looks at language as consisting of
units of meanings rather than chunks of forms.
◦ In keeping with the idea, functional grammar is
interested in analyzing language at the text level rather
than sentences.
Overview of Functional Grammar (Cont)
◦ Further, Halliday (1994) writes that there are three lines of
meaning in the clause:
(1) the theme functions in the structure of the clause as a
message;
(2) the subject functions in the structure of the clause as an
exchange;
(3) the actor functions in the structure of the clause as
representation.
◦ Giving more explanation about functional grammar, he adds
that functional grammar makes extensive use of function labels
like actor, process, goal, theme & rheme etc.
 Clause vs. Sentence
Traditional grammar Functional grammar

◦A sentence is a There are three sentence

complete unit consisting types:
of subject and predicate ◦ Simple sentence
OR ◦ Compound sentence
◦A sentence is a ◦ Complex sentence
grammatical unit having
one or several clauses.
 Clause vs. Sentence (Cont)
◦ A clause is a grammatical unit having at least one
predicate and one explicit subject or implicit subject,
stating a proposition.
Number of clause Number of sentence
He can’t lift the table. 1 1
Stay! 1 1
Hello! 1
He gets up early to catch the 1 1
first train.
He walked in, sat down, and 3 1
began to talk.
 Clause as Message
◦ A clause has a character of message, giving it the status of
communicative event.
◦ That communicative character comes from one part of the clause,
known as THEME.
◦ Theme and rheme help us understand how information is conveyed in
clauses.

My sister goes to school every morning.

Theme rheme

Theme: the subject or main idea in a talk, piece of writing;

Rheme: the part of a sentence or clause that adds new information to
what the reader or audience already knows (from Oxford Dictionary).
Theme & Rheme
◦ The cat tore up the newspaper.
◦ The newspaper was torn by the cat.
◦ Last night the cat tore up the newspaper.
◦ It is the newspaper that the cat tore up.
◦ It is annoying that the cat tore up the newspaper.
◦ What annoys me is the cat tore up the newspaper.

THEME RHEME
Metafunctions in SFG (Halliday, 1972)

Metafunctions

Ideational Interpersonal Textual

Ideational function
◦ Language is used to talk about our experience of the
world, including our inner world, to describe:
◦ Events
◦ States, and
◦ The entities involved
I went to the cinema with my best friend yesterday
afternoon.
I always feel happy when I’m with her.
Interpersonal function
◦ Language is used for people:
◦ To interact with each other
◦ To establish & maintain relationships
◦ To please, to anger, & to influence each other’s behavior
◦ To get help
◦ To express sympathy.
Would you hand me your paper, please?
Hand me your paper!

MOOD: realizes the interaction between the speaker

(writer) &hearer (reader)
 Textual function
◦ Relates to mode – the internal organization and
communicative nature of a text.
◦ Includes:
◦ Textual interactivity.
◦ Spontaneity (lexical density, grammatical complexity,
coordination, etc.)
→ Theme & rheme.
 TIME TO SAY GOODBYE
Huyen Nguyen M.A. (She/Her)
Lecturer, Linguistics Division, English Department
Hanoi University, Km9 Nguyen Trai Road, Nam Tu Liem District
Hanoi, Vietnam | M: +84 978 466 689
E: huyen.nguyen@hanu.edu.vn
ResearchGate | ORCID | LinkedIn

Any questions?