functional grammar

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·

Personal

Clarifying or arranging one’s ideas; expressing one’s thoughts

or feelings:

love, joy, pleasure, happiness,

surprise, likes, satisfaction,

dislikes, disappointment, distress, pain,

anger, anguish,

fear, anxiety, sorrow, frustration, annoyance at missed

opportunities, moral,

intellectual and social concerns; and the

everyday feelings of hunger, thirst, fatigue,

sleepiness, cold, or warmth

·

Interpersonal

Enabling us to establish and maintain desirable social

and working relationships: greetings and

leave takings

introducing people to others identifying oneself

to others expressing joy at

another’s success

expressing concern for other people’s welfare extending and

accepting invitations

refusing invitations politely or making

alternative arrangements making appointments

for

meetings

breaking appointments politely and arranging

another mutually convenient time apologizing

excusing oneself and

accepting excuses for not meeting commitments indicating agreement

or disagreement

interrupting another speaker politely changing

an embarrassing subject

receiving visitors and

paying visits to others

offering food or drinks and accepting or declining

politely sharing wishes, hopes, desires,

problems

making promises and committing

oneself to some action

complimenting someone

making excuses

expressing and acknowledging gratitude

·

Directive

Attempting to influence the actions of others; accepting

or refusing direction: making suggestions in

which the speaker is included

making requests; making suggestions

refusing to accept

a suggestion or a

request but offering an alternative persuading someone

to change his point of view

requesting and granting permission

asking for help

and

responding to a plea

for help forbidding someone to do something; issuing a command giving and

responding to instructions

warning someone

discouraging someone from pursuing a course of

action establishing guidelines and deadlines for the completion of actions asking

for directions or instructions

·

Referential

talking or reporting about things, actions, events, or

people in the environment in

the past or in the future; talking

about language (what is termed the metalinguistic function: = talking

or reporting about things, actions, events,

or people in the environment in

the past

or in the future

identifying items or people in the

classroom, the school the home, the community asking

for a description of someone or something

defining something or a

language item or asking for a definition

paraphrasing, summarizing, or translating (L1 to L2

or vice versa) explaining or asking for explanations

of how something works comparing or

contrasting things

discussing possibilities, probabilities, or

capabilities of doing something requesting or

reporting facts about events

or actions

evaluating the results of an action or

event

·

Imaginative

Discussions involving elements of creativity and artistic

expression

discussing a poem, a story, a piece of music, a

play, a painting, a film, a

TV program, etc. expanding ideas

suggested by other or by a piece

of literature or reading

material

creating rhymes, poetry, stories

or plays recombining familiar dialogs or passages creatively

suggesting original beginnings

or endings to dialogs or stories solving problems

or mysteries

categories