Transcript Document
Lesson Four
Functional Grammar
(meta) functions
• Ideational
• Interpersonal
• Textual
Ideational Function
• processes,
• participants
• circumstances
• John kissed Mary in the cinema.
• “Never in the field of human conflict has so much
been owed by so many to so few”
Interpersonal Function
• Speaker’s intentions or expectations
• Relations between speaker and hearer
• Mood selection – indicative, interrogative,
imperative
Passato Prossimo
• Carola:
Beh… mi ha chiamato per
chiedermi cosa facevo questo
weekend, però gli ho detto che
venivo qua.
• Claudia: Ma chiamalo!
• Carola: Adesso? Ma sono le due!
• Claudia Vabbé domani. Però domani lo
chiami!
• Carola: Vabbé
Present Perfect
• Carola: Well… he called to ask me what I
was doing this weekend, but I had
to tell him I was coming here.
Claudia: So call him now!
• Carola: Now? It’s two in the morning!
• Claudia Alright tomorrow. But call him
tomorrow.
• Carola: Alright.
Textual Function
• Makes language cohesive and coherent
– links
– reference
– etc.
Theme and Rheme
Given information and New information
Cohesion
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•
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Reference
Substitution
Ellipsis
Conjunction
Lexical cohesion
Reference
Anaphoric reference
James Bond came into the room and the
woman shot him.
Cataphoric reference
He came into the room and said “The name
is Bond, James Bond.”
Substitution
• for nouns – one, ones
– I’ll have the big one, You can have the little ones.
• for verbs – do
– I like Mars bars. So do I.
– John speaks Italian and so does Mary.
• for clauses – so, not, modality (perhaps)
– Is this the end of the lesson? I hope so.
– Will it rain? Maybe.
Ellipsis
• Substitution by zero
Are you tired? Yes, I am.
Did you vote Labour? Yes.
Conjunction
And
– Fish and chips
But
– I tried but I failed.
Therefore
I think, therefore I am.
etc.
Lexical cohesion
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•
•
•
•
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Repetition
Synonymy
Hyponymy
Metaphor/Simile
Collocation
Semantic field (chains)
Figures of speech
Dancing Girls (M. Attwood)
The first sign of the new man was the knock on
the door. It was the landlady, knocking not at
Ann’s door, as she’d thought, but on the other
door, the one east of the bathroom. Knock, knock,
knock; then a pause, soft footsteps, the sound of
unlocking. Ann, who had been reading a book on
canals, put it down and lit herself a cigarette. It
wasn’t that she tried to overhear: in the house you
couldn’t help it.
Dancing Girls (cohesion)
Anaphoric reference: she, the one, who, it
Cataphoric reference: It
Repetition: knock, door
Semantic field via chains: landlady –doorunlocking-house; house-bathroom-door
Collocation: knock - door
Theme and Rheme
Mary kicked John in the cinema.
John was kicked by Mary in the cinema.
In the cinema Mary kicked John.
Given & New Information
• Paris was lively in those days. The city
never slept.
The city = Given information
… never slept = New information