Functional Grammar

Functional Grammar

Functional grammars view language as a resources for making meaning. These grammars attempt to describes language in actual use and so focus on texts and their contexts. They are concerned not only with the structures but also with how those structures construct meaning. Functional grammars start with the question, how are the meanings of this text realised?

Traditional and formal grammars would analyse our earlier clause as follows:

Time          flies       like an arrow

noun          verb       prepositional phrase

Tim            fold       of a tragic case

Systematic-functional grammar, on the other hand, labels elements of the clause in terms of the function each is playing in that clause rather than by word class.

Time                  flies            like an arrow

Participants:       Process:     Circumstance:

Actor                  Materal      Manner

In these last two clauses, the participants (doer) rules are realised nouns, the process (doing) by verbs and the circumstances by prepositional phrases. B ut 'flying' and 'feeling' are two quite different orders of 'doing" and in the above clause 'like an arrow' tells how time flies, while 'of a tragic case' tells what tim was talking about.