THE PRAGUE SCHOOL

AND FUNCTIONAL
SENTENCE PERSPECTIVE
(FSP)
HUMAIRA MALIK

What is Functionalism
Functionalism is a reaction against the "formal" linguistics
theories that began with Saussurean Structuralism in the early
1900s.
In the 1970s Functionalism revived diachronic study as a
means of discovering the answer to how language change fits
language function: change according to use.
Functionalists focus on all categories of linguistics including
phonology, syntax and grammar.

 Functionalism explores language the way it functions, or the

role it plays.
Functionalists maintain that the structure of natural languages is
determined by the several independent semiotic functions
expressive, descriptive and social.
Furthermore, it says that the structure of language systems is
partly though not wholly, determined by functions.

The Prague School

The Prague School can be traced back to its first meeting under
the leadership of Mathesius (18821946) in 1926. Its most
important contribution to linguistics is that it sees language in
terms of function. Three important points concerning the ideas of
the Prague School:
First, it was stressed that the synchronic study of language is
fully justified.
Second, there was an emphasis on the systemic character of
language. Elements are held to be in functional contrast or
opposition.
Third, language was looked on as functional in another sense,
that is, as a tool performing a number of essential functions or

Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP)

Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) is a theory of linguistic
analysis which refers to an analysis of utterances (or texts) in
terms of the information they contain.
The principle is that the role of each utterance part is
evaluated for its semantic contribution to the whole.

 According to Mathesius, every utterance has two different

structures:
1. Grammatical
2. Informational
(termed: the information-bearing structure of the utterance)

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
Theme the point of departure of a sentence, which is equally
present to the speaker and hearer;
Rheme -- the goal of discourse which presents the very information
that is to be imparted to the hearer;
Known/ given information -- information that is not new to the
reader or hearer;
New information -- what is to be transmitted to the reader or
hearer.

 Prague School Linguists use the foundation and core

and are usually replaced by theme and rheme.
In so far as word-order is held to be a matter of syntax,
i.
Sally
stands on the table.
subject
predicate
theme
rheme
ii. On the table stands
Sally.
predicate
subject

 Unless special effects are aimed at, theme usually precedes rheme
(i.e. theme is unmarked).
In marked utterances, rheme is promoted to the first position
followed by the theme.
i. He got up late this morning.
ii. This morning he got up late.
In (i) the theme is unmarked
and the theme is marked in (ii) owing to the thematization of the
information.

Might be regarded as different versions of the same sentence or different

sentences.

Whichever point of view we adopt, two things are clear:

1. truth conditionally equivalent and a narrow inter truth.
2. the context in which (i) would be uttered differ systematically
from the context in which (2) would be uttered.

Another example of two sentences

i. The door opened and an old man entered the room
and
ii. The door opened and the old man entered the room
. Have identical syntactic structure
. and almost identical lexical content: the difference is just in the form
of article.
.But this difference determines a different functional perspective of the
two sentences.
.In the first case the indefinite article is the marker of new information.
. and in the second the definite article shows that the object referred to is
already known.

 In some languages, the syntactic structures of utterances or of

sentences is determined by the communicative setting of the
utterance.
This is called functional sentence perspective by Prague school
linguistics.
Functionalism in linguistics emphasizes the instrumental
character of language.

CONCLUSION
In general, we can say that functionalism in linguistics has
tended to emphasize the instrumental (active) character of
language. There is a natural similarity.
Fucntionalism firmly opposed to generativism.
language is determined by the several interdependent
semiotic(study of symbols & signs- language system of
communication) function

 Functionalism, on the other hand, seeks functional explanations

for language in terms of general assumptions such as the
principle of contrast (minimize ambiguity).
It would seem there is great deal of language arbitrariness in
the non-verbal components of language systems, especially
grammatical structure and that of functionalism, as such
defined, is untenable.
Therefore, the linguists who follow functionalism tend to
accept its weaker versions.

Bibliography
Lyons, J. (1981).Language and linguistics: An
introduction. Cambridge.

 Functionalism in linguistics emphasizes the instrumental

character of language.
Functionalists maintain that the structure of natural languages
is determined by the several independent semiotic functions
expressive, descriptive and social.
Furthermore, it says that the structure of language systems is
partly though not wholly, determined by functions.

Trubetzkoys contribution
Trubetzkoys contributions to phonological theory concern four
aspects.
First, he showed distinctive functions of speech sounds and gave an
accurate definition for the phoneme.
Second, by making distinctions between phonetics and phonology, and
between stylistic phonology and phonology, he defined the sphere of
phonological studies.
Third, by studying the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations
between phonemes, he revealed the interdependent relations between
phonemes.
Finally, he put forward a set of methodologies for phonological studies,
such as the method of extracting phonemes and the method of studying

 Structuralism, begun by Saussure, focuses on structural

interconnections in synchronic context (language at a
synchronous, specifically selected, moment in time).
It is synchronic interconnectedness that obviates(bypass) the
need for diachronic linguistic knowledge (language change
overtime).