Form and function
Form’ refers to the category labels we use for the building blocks of grammar,
i.e. word classes, phrases, and clauses. Consider the following sentence:
• My daughter bought a completely useless smartphone over the summer.
Scanning this sentence from left to right we can label each individual word as
follows:
• my: determiner
• daughter: noun
• bought: verb
• a: determiner
• completely: adverb
• new: adjective
• smartphone: noun
• over: preposition
• the: determiner
• summer: noun
All the word class labels above are referred to as grammatical form labels. Still
talking about form, we can also say that:
• my daughter is a noun phrase
• a completely useless smartphone is also a noun phrase
• over the summer is a preposition phrase
The terms ‘noun phrase’, ‘preposition phrase’, etc. are also grammatical form
labels.
Digging deeper into the phrases a completely useless smartphone and over the
summer we can also say that:
• completely useless is an adjective phrase within the larger noun phrase a
completely useless smartphone
• with the preposition phrase over the summer we have an embedded noun
phrase, namely the summer
(In some grammars we also have verb phrases such that bought on its own
forms a verb phrase or, if the direct object is included in the verb
phrase, bought a new smartphone. The National Curriculum doesn’t recognise
verb phrases as such. Instead verbs are regarded as the Heads of clauses.
For some further explanation, look here.)
, In summary, when we are talking about form, we are talking about structure.
We can visualise structure using what linguists call tree diagrams. For a
completely useless smartphone the tree looks like this:
We are also taking about form when we have subordination in a phrase or
clause. So, in the following example the string that she lives in Leicester is
a subordinate clause:
• I know that she lives in Leicester.
‘Subordinate clause’ is a further example of a grammatical form label.
There’s more to say about form, but for now this will do.
What about ‘function’? It is important to be aware that this label is actually
ambiguous: it can have a general sense and a grammatical sense. These are
often confused.
Let’s look at the general sense first. Consider the utterance below:
• Fortunately, the pain went away very quickly.
The word fortunately in this sentence is an adverb that has a pragmatic
function: it signals that the speaker views what follows (namely the pain going
away quickly) as a good thing.
Very in the adverb phrase very quickly is also an adverb which functions in a
general sense to ‘intensify’ the meaning of the adverb quickly. So from a
general functional point of view we can say that this word is an intensifier. This
can be called a semantic function.
Turning now to the grammatical sense of ‘function’ (which is actually best
referred to as ‘grammatical function’), we need to say different things about
the sentence above.
Taking the word fortunately again, this time we say that its grammatical
function is Adverbial. Words and phrases that have the grammatical function
Form’ refers to the category labels we use for the building blocks of grammar,
i.e. word classes, phrases, and clauses. Consider the following sentence:
• My daughter bought a completely useless smartphone over the summer.
Scanning this sentence from left to right we can label each individual word as
follows:
• my: determiner
• daughter: noun
• bought: verb
• a: determiner
• completely: adverb
• new: adjective
• smartphone: noun
• over: preposition
• the: determiner
• summer: noun
All the word class labels above are referred to as grammatical form labels. Still
talking about form, we can also say that:
• my daughter is a noun phrase
• a completely useless smartphone is also a noun phrase
• over the summer is a preposition phrase
The terms ‘noun phrase’, ‘preposition phrase’, etc. are also grammatical form
labels.
Digging deeper into the phrases a completely useless smartphone and over the
summer we can also say that:
• completely useless is an adjective phrase within the larger noun phrase a
completely useless smartphone
• with the preposition phrase over the summer we have an embedded noun
phrase, namely the summer
(In some grammars we also have verb phrases such that bought on its own
forms a verb phrase or, if the direct object is included in the verb
phrase, bought a new smartphone. The National Curriculum doesn’t recognise
verb phrases as such. Instead verbs are regarded as the Heads of clauses.
For some further explanation, look here.)
, In summary, when we are talking about form, we are talking about structure.
We can visualise structure using what linguists call tree diagrams. For a
completely useless smartphone the tree looks like this:
We are also taking about form when we have subordination in a phrase or
clause. So, in the following example the string that she lives in Leicester is
a subordinate clause:
• I know that she lives in Leicester.
‘Subordinate clause’ is a further example of a grammatical form label.
There’s more to say about form, but for now this will do.
What about ‘function’? It is important to be aware that this label is actually
ambiguous: it can have a general sense and a grammatical sense. These are
often confused.
Let’s look at the general sense first. Consider the utterance below:
• Fortunately, the pain went away very quickly.
The word fortunately in this sentence is an adverb that has a pragmatic
function: it signals that the speaker views what follows (namely the pain going
away quickly) as a good thing.
Very in the adverb phrase very quickly is also an adverb which functions in a
general sense to ‘intensify’ the meaning of the adverb quickly. So from a
general functional point of view we can say that this word is an intensifier. This
can be called a semantic function.
Turning now to the grammatical sense of ‘function’ (which is actually best
referred to as ‘grammatical function’), we need to say different things about
the sentence above.
Taking the word fortunately again, this time we say that its grammatical
function is Adverbial. Words and phrases that have the grammatical function
