Samenvatting English Clause Grammar (ETK II)

Engelse taalkunde II – English clause
grammar
Functional layers of meaning in the clause
Functional:

- Use: functional grammar = ‘natural grammar’: system had evolved to satisfy human needs
- Meaning:
o Linguistic forms: realizations of specific functions or meanings  differences in forms tend to
spell differences in meaning
o Grammar = meaning-encoding device: there is meaning in the particular structure of
combination
o 2 broad types of form-meaning correlates:
 Ideational/representational: to construe or represent experience, to understand
environment  clause = representation
 Interpersonal: to negotiate representational meaning socially between speech
participants, to act on others in environment  clause = exchange
 Textual function: links complex ideas together into coherent and cohesive waves of
information, breathes relevance into the other two
- Each element in language is explained by reference to its function in the total linguistic system: each
parts is functional with respect to the whole



Functional approach to the clause

- Clause: grammatical unit which has a verb as its conceptual head
o Consists of…
 Verb designating a process
 One or more participants associated with the process
 Optional circumstances
o Types
 Intransitive: no object, 1 participant: subject
 Intransitive, copular: copular verb with complement to subject
 Transitive: 1 object
 Ditransitive: 2 objects
 Complextransitive: object and complement to object
o Interpersonal functions: clause consists of particular syntactic roles onto which the
representational functions are mapped
o Types: speech function (typical correlations of clause type and speech function)
 Declarative
 Interrogative
 Imperative
 Exclamative
o Thematic or textual functional analysis
 Theme: starting point for message
 Frequently marked of by speech intonation
 Clause organized into 2 information units  boundary is likely to coincide
with junction between theme and rheme
 Rheme; part in which theme is developed

,o Intonation and stress placement
 Clauses are spoken on 1 tone unit
 Tonic syllable tends to be part of lexically full word in clause
 Tonic syllable: carries the most prominent change in pitch
 Choice of tone realized basic semantic values associated with clause as
communicative act
 Falling pitch  certainty
 Rising pitch  uncertainty
 Tones of English
o Falling
o Rising
o Level/low rising
o Falling-rising
o Rising-falling
o Falling + level
o Rising-falling + level
 Tonic element coincides with information focus
 1 information unit consists of given information followed by new information
+ 1 information unit coincides with 1 clause
 Most salient part of the new (= information focus) is marked by tonic
prominence

, Chapter 1: basic clause types
Clause types + communicative functions/illocutionary acts (typical use)

1. Declaratives – make statements
2. Interrogatives – ask questions
3. Imperatives – utter commands
4. Exclamatives – utter exclamations
5. Tag questions
 May also be used incongruently: express other that their default communicative functions = indirect
speech acts



Mood types: use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are
saying

- Realis: indicate that sth is actually the case or not the case
- Irrealis: indicate that sth is not actually the case or that a certain situation or action is known to have
happened



MOOD element

- Main illocutionary acts of stating, questioning and commanding are typically realized by variation on
order of MOOD element, the rest of the clause (residue) remains unchanged
- Main elements of structure which together form MOOD element are subject and finite
o Indicative (declarative or interrogative) and imperative moods are manifested by presence or
absence of subject ad order in which subject and finite verb occur

Criteria for ‘finiteness’

- 3 criteria
o Finite VPs can occur as VP of an independent clause
o Finite VPs have tense contrast (they distinguish between present and past tense)
o Finite VPs have person and number concord with subject
- Distinction
o Finite VP: first or only word is finite verb, the rest (if any) are non-finite verbs
o Non-finite VP: contain non-finite verb forms only: infinitive, present participle, past participle
- Finiteness form functional perspective: establishing temporal or modal link with speech event
(expressing time or modality)
- Only finite independent clauses have mood: subordinate clauses and minor clauses do not allow for
alternative orderings of subject and finite which are essential to mood element as expression of
interpersonal interaction