Summary Grammar II

According to Lock these are the main differences between formal and functional grammar. The first
approach sees grammar as a:
 Set of rules which specify all the possible grammatical structures of language and that,
 Tends to be interested in abstract representations and relationships between structures.
 The primary concern is with the forms of grammatical structures and their relationship to one
another, rather than with their meanings or uses.

Functional grammar takes into account:

 How a grammar of a language serves as a resource for making and exchanging meaning.
 Tends to view language as a communicative resource and express meaning.
 Sees language as a system of communication and analyses grammar to discover how it is organized.

Levels of analysis (S.F.G. System Functional Grammar)

Phonology: studies the sound system of a particular language. Is what we know as pronunciation. (table
/teibl/)
Lexis: studies words of a language. It refers to vocabulary (child, children, child´s etc)
Grammar: has two main aspects:
 Syntax: how words combines to form a meaningful sentence (He kicked the ball)
 Morphology: The arrangements of words. Studies how, for example a word like KICKED can be
divided into two parts. Ex: kick-(action), ed-(tense)
Semantics --> Refers to the systems of meaning in a Language. That is, how sentences relate the real world
of people, places and so on. Is the meaning convey. Ex. “I no like” syntactically is wrong but semantically
has negative meaning.

Grammar can be organized into:

1. Ranks: refers to different levels of organization (word [lexical words: n, adj, Lex. Verbs, and adv.
Function words: det, pronouns, aux verbs, pre. Coordinators], groups [contain only one word that
can be thought as an expanded word), clause, sentence)
2. Classes: refers to parts of speech. Are the names of word classes. Noun, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
3. Phrases: Are like mini clauses. Ex: “across the river”- prepositional phrase)
4. Embedding: is when we have a clause within or as part of another clause. Ex: My bike, which is very
old, is broken.

Meaning in grammar:
Each clause simultaneously embodies three kind of meanings, and we have to take them into account to
understand how the clause functions in context.
Experiential: The representations in our experienced world (thoughts and feelings)
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Interpersonal: The meaning has to do with our acts, judgments and attitudes about things.
Textual: The meaning has to do with the language organization and the coherence.

The grammatical functions --> consists in 5 elements

Functions refers to different possible uses of language: (asking for something, describing people, etc)
1. Subject (noun phrase before a verb)

2. Predicator --> contains the verb and information. “The verb is crucial to the mood” (imperative
mood, conditional mood, indicative mood, subjunctive mood).

3. Object --> is a noun phrase that usually follows the finite verb. Ex: I’ll give you your paper

 *Direct object --> refers to a person or thing affected by the verb. (He has a flower)
 *Indirect object --> person or things who receives the direct object or is affected by the action. (He
gave me a flower)

4. Main verb --> (or lexical verbs) Is the important verb in the sentence, can stand alone and can be
helped by an auxiliary verb.

 *Finite Verbs: Show distinctions in tense, person and number (I go, she went,)
 *Non- finites: do not show tense, person and number (infinitives to-go, gerund -ing ending
and past participle- gone)

5. The complement --> follows the copular (or linking) verbs and is necessary to add information about
the subject. (act, be, become, feel, appear, grow, taste, sound, look, seen, get, stay, prove)

6. Adjunct --> is not necessary and adds extra information. (Adverbials examples: He waited outside for
ages, she quickly called him)

The grammatical categories marked in verbs: Tense, Aspect, Voice, mood and Modality use of verbs.
 Tense: through tense we can refer to different times. Is the time in which a verb takes place. (Present
and past)

 Aspect: Add time meaning so it refers to the duration of a verb's action. (Simple aspect: Sees/ Perfect
aspect: Has seen/ Progressive: is seeing/ Perfect progressive: had been seeing)

 Voice: could take two forms active or passive. Example --> “I don’t like people bullying me” (A) / “I
don’ like being bullied by people” (P).

 Modality: it is the element through which speakers or writers show attitude. Modality can be
expressed through modal verbs as well as through grammatical mood.

 Mood: Declarative, interrogative, imperative.

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 Grammar of the clause
According to Biber… “a clause is the key unit of grammar made up by one or more phrases”. The main
elements of the clause are: subject, object, verb phrase, predicative and adverbial.
There are two main types of clauses – Independent one and dependent.

Independent Clauses --> are those clauses that are not part of any larger clause structure. However,
they can be coordinated and they can include embedded dependent clauses.
 Simple independent clause (single clause): You can give me a dollar.
 Coordinated independent clauses (two or more coordinated clauses): He was studying and so I
made silence.
 Complex independent clause (with one or more dependent clauses): If you pay to much, they’ll
give us the money back.
All independent clauses are finite, that is to say, they contain a finite verb form which specifies tense (ex, is,
looked) or modality (ex, can, would)
There are four major types of independent clauses, these correspond to four main types of speech act.
1. A statement (declarative clause) --> gives information and expects no specific response from the
addressee.
2. A question (interrogative clause) --> ask for information and expects a linguistic response.
3. Commands (imperative clause) --> is used to give orders or requests.
4. An exclamation (exclamative clause) --> expresses the strong feelings of the speaker/writer and
expect no specific response.

Dependent Clauses --> a clause that cannot function syntactically as a complete sentence by itself
but has a nominal, adjectival, or adverbial function within a larger sentence.
They can be subdivided into finite and non- finite clauses.

Finite dependant clauses: there are four major types that includes:
1. Complement Clauses --> are introduced by the subordinator that or by WH- word. Ex: They believe
that he stole the purse. / What I don’t understand is why they don’t let me know everything.

2. Adverbial Clauses --> are used as adverbial in the main clause and are introduced by a subordinator
like if, before, when. Ex: If you go to the bank, they’ll rip you off.

3. Relative Clauses --> serves to expand the meaning. Ex: We have thirty students who are studying
hard every day.

4. Comparative Clauses --> are complements in an adjective phrase or an adverb phrase. Ex: Maybe
he would realize she was not as nice as she pretended to be.

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Non - Finite dependant clauses include: are regularly dependent on a main clause. They do not have tense or
modality, and they usually lack an explicit subject and subordinator. There are three major types of non-
finite clauses:
1. Infinitive clause --> act as complement clauses (except when they act as object predicative and
adverbial). Ex: My goal now is to look to the future (subject predicative)
2. ING- clauses --> have a wide range of syntactic roles. Ex: I started thinking about Christmas.
(D.O)
3. -ED participle clauses --> are less versatile and can adopted direct object and adverbial forms.