e.g. requests, apologies, complaints, offers, compliments. The functional
uses of language cannot be determined simply by studying the grammatical
structure of sentences. For example, sentences in the imperative form (see
mood) may perform a variety of different functions:
Give me that book. (Order)
Pass the jam. (Request)
Turn right at the corner. (Instruction)
Try the smoked salmon. (Suggestion)
Come round on Sunday. (Invitation)
In linguistics, the functional uses of language are studied in speech act
theory, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics. In the communicative
approachto language teaching, a syllabusis often organized in terms of
the different language functions the learner needs to express or understand.
see also functions of language, functional syllabus, notional
syllabus, speech act, speech act classificationfunctional grammar n
a term with several meanings.
In general, any approach to grammatical description that attempts to
describe the ways in which meanings and functions are realized in
language. For example, instead of describing “tense”, a grammatical notion,
one can investigate the ways in which “time reference”, a semantic notion,
is realized in language. The linguistic means for indicating time reference in
English include not only tense and aspect, but also modals, adverbs,
adverbial phrases, and adverbial clauses.
More specifically, the term is used to refer to a formal model of grammar
developed in the 1970s by the Dutch Scholar Simon Dik, which consists of
a series of predicate frames, hierarchically layered templates into which
lexical items are inserted.
see also lexical functional grammar
functional illiteracy n
see literacy
functional linguistics n
an approach to linguistics which is concerned with language as an instru-
ment of social interaction rather than as a system of formal rules that
is viewed in isolation from their uses in communication. It considers the
individual as a social being and investigates the way in which he or she
acquires language and uses it in order to communicate with others in his or
her social environment.
see also pragmatics, social context, speech event
functional grammar