UNIT 4. FUNCTIONAL SENTENCE PERSPECTIVE

Question 1

What is Functionalism?

Answer 1

A pragmatic view of language as social interaction, and therefore the approach focuses on the rules which govern verbal interaction.

Question 2

What aspects of text does functionalism focus on?

Answer 2

Meaning, rather than form, the extra-linguistic context and the purpose of communication.

Question 3

What is Functional Sentence Perspective?

Answer 3

Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) is a linguistic theory which refers to an analysis of utterances or texts in terms of the information they contain.

The role of each part of utterances is evaluated for its semantic contribution to the whole.

FSP provides a functional explanation for word order.

Question 4

What is Communicative Dynamism?

Answer 4

The relative extent to which a linguistic element contributes towards the further development of the communication

Question 5

What four elements determine the communicative system?

Answer 5

1) Linear Modification
2) The contextual factor
3) The contextual factor
4) Prosodic prominence

Question 6

What is linear modification?

Answer 6

The relation between word order and communicative dynamism.

Question 7

What is the contextual factor? What has this concept created?

Answer 7

Whether a given meaning is retrievable or irretrievable from the immediately relevant context.

This notion has created the opposition context-dependent/context independent.

Question 8

What is the semantic factor?

Answer 8

The factors that deals with so-called dynamic functions. It distinghuishes between Theme-Rheme.

Question 9

What is prosodic prominence?

Answer 9

A factor that can only be studied in spoken language.

Question 10

Theme vs Rheme

Answer 10

The theme is the starting point of a clause; that is what the clause is about. The remainder of the clause is the rheme

Question 11

What is the theme in the context of a communicative act?

Answer 11

The part of a sentence which adds least to the advancing process of communication, having the lowest degree of communicative dynamism.

Question 12

What does the choice of theme show? What does it always contain?

Answer 12

It shows the angle from which the speaker projects his message. It always contains an ideational element, which is some entity which functions as subject, object, complement or circumstantial adjunct.

Question 13

How many types of theme are there?

Answer 13

0. Topical theme
1. Experiential theme
2. Non-experiential themes
3. Multiple themes
4. Detached themes

Question 14

What is the experiential theme? How many types can we differentiate?

Answer 14

It represents our experience of the world.

We can differentiate 5 types:

Subject
Object
Circumstantial adjuncts
Complement
Verb

Question 15

What is the Non-experiential theme and in how many kinds can it be divided to?

Answer 15

It functions to continuate or connect parts of the sentence. We can divide it into the Interpersonal theme and the Textual theme

Question 16

What are multiple themes? What is the typical sequence they appear in?

Answer 16

Two or three types of theme that can be concurrent in the same utterance. The typical sequence is textual/interpersonal/experiential.

Question 17

What are detached themes?What are the two?

Answer 17

Themes out of the main clause. We distinguish between Absolute Themes and Dislocations.

Absolute themes are normally detached lexical noun phrases which stand outside the clause.

like “the financial crisis” in “the financial crisis, we are all ware that some bla bla…”

Dislocations: The “dislocated” element is a constituent of the clause, frequently subject, and is repeated by a coreferential pronoun. The connection is encoded grammatically.

like “That scream” in “That Scream, where did it come from”

(“it” being the coreferential pronoun in the sentence)

Question 18

What is the RHEME in the context of a communicative act?

Answer 18

It’s the part of the sentence that carries the highest degree of communicative dynamism.

Question 19

If we have two or more clauses joined together in a complex clause which one would be the thematic clause of the bundle?

Answer 19

The first one

Question 20

What are the two type of clauses in bundles of complex thematic clauses?

Answer 20

Paratactical Clauses: They are related by coordination, so there is a relationship of equivalence, they are typically placed in the chronological order in which the events described occur.

Hypotactical clauses: They are related by subordination, so there is a relationship of non-equivalence; the speaker/writer does not necessarily have to maintain chronological order.

Question 21

Are Theme, Subject and Topic the same thing?

Answer 21

No, they aren’t.

1) Theme is the point of departure of the message
2) Subject is the syntactic element of clause structure
3) Topic is what the text is about.

Question 22

What is thematization?

Answer 22

The order in which we structure our sentences in a linear organization as to foreground specific parts of our message.

Question 23

What is a marked theme?

Answer 23

The marked theme is that theme that does not coincide with the expected first constituent of each structure, and thus is thematized.

Question 24

What are unmarked themes?

Answer 24

Those which co-exist with the expected first constituent of the structure, and thus are not thematized.

Question 25

How do we divide information structure?

Answer 25

Into Given and New

Question 26

How does Halliday explain the form of spoken discourse?

Answer 26

As taking a form of information units. Information meaning a process of interaction between what is already known or predictable and what is new or unpredictable. The information unit, thus, is a structure macde up of two functions: The New and the Given.

Question 27

What is the Given element of an information unit? What’s the New one?

Answer 27

The given element is information presented of the speaker as “recoverable”.

The new element is information the speaker presented as not recoverable by the hearer.

Question 28

How is the New always marked?

Answer 28

It is always marked by tonic prominence and it’s said to be carrying information focus.

Question 29

What is End-focus? When is the focus marked and when it isn’t?

Answer 29

its the focus that marks when the new element ends but it’s never clear when the new begins.

The focus is unmarked when it falls on the last lexical item of the clause.

The focus is marked when it does not fall at the end of the sentence.

Question 30

What is Tone Unit? What does it always contain? What does it constitute?

Answer 30

It’s the minimal unit which can carry intuition.
It always containes one syllable which is more prominent.
It constitutes the focus of information

Question 31

What is Information focus?

Answer 31

It represents the peak or highest point of the unit, and its correct placement is of utmost importance in english, due to the fact that it constitutes the main strategy used by speakers for communicating constrast and emphasis in the spoken language.

Question 32

What is Clefting? What two types are there?

Answer 32

A cleft sentence is a complex sentence (one having a main clause and a dependent clause) that has a meaning that could be expressed by a simple sentence.

So when you’re clefting you’re re-organizing the content of a single clause into two related parts or units in order to place the focus on a new element that always follows a form of the verb to be.

pd: Clefts typically put a particular constituent into focus. In spoken language, this focusing is often accompanied by a special intonation.

We can distinguish between:

1) It-cleft
2) Wh-cleft

Question 33

What are rethorical effects? What two effects can we distinguish?

Answer 33

The different strategies which will bring about different results in the interpretation of the message on the part of the hearer.

We can differentiate between

1) Prototypical Case: Where the theme/given leads to the rheme/new as in

“She (theme/given) HATES (rheme/new) him”.

2) Contrastive effect: Where the theme/new leads into the rheme/given as in

“GOLF (theme/new) is what he really likes (rheme/given)”.