functional literacy n
see literacy
functional load n
the relative importance of linguistic contrasts in a language. Not all the
distinctions or contrasts within the structure of a language are of the same
importance. For example the contrast between /p/ and /b/ at the beginning
of words in English serves to distinguish many words, such aspig – big;
pack – back; pad – bad, etc. The distinction /p/ – /b/ is thus said to have high
functional load. But other contrasts such as the contrast between /u/ and /q/
in words like wreathe – wreath are not used to distinguish many words in
English and are said to have low functional load.
functional sentence perspective n
also FSP
a type of linguistic analysis associated with the Prague School which
describes how information is distributed in sentences. FSP deals particu-
larly with the effect of the distribution of known (or given) information and
new information in discourse. The known information (known as theme,
in FSP), refers to information that is not new to the reader or listener. The
rhemerefers to information that is new. FSP differs from the traditional
grammatical analysis of sentences because the distinction between subject –
predicate is not always the same as the theme – rheme contrast. For example
we may compare the two sentences below:
1 John sat in the front seat. 2 In the front seat sat John.
Subject Predicate Predicate Subject
Theme Rheme Theme Rheme
John is the grammatical subject in both sentences, but theme in 1 and rheme
in 2.
Other terms used to refer to the theme–rheme distinction are topic–
comment (see topic^2 ), background–focus, given–new information.
functional syllabus n
(in language teaching) a syllabusin which the language content is
arranged in terms of functions or speech actstogether with the language
items needed for them. For example, the functions might be identifying,
describing, inviting, offering, etc., in different types of discourse(i.e. speech
or writing). The language skills involved might be listening, speaking,
reading, or writing. The language items needed for these functions are called
exponentsor realizations.
functional syllabus