FUNCTIONAL THEORIES OF GRAMMAR.

The article offers information about some of the grammatical theories compatible with the assumptions of anthropologically oriented students of language and with the theoretical work of scholars. The study aims at closing the gap between the study of language and the study of communication and tries to give grammar a direct material grounding in the communicative situation. It also provides a survey intended to give some idea of the goals and types of functionalist thought in linguistics. Finally, the study concludes that the various functionalist approaches are essentially complementary. Most functionalists seem to perceive a unity of goals and methods, despite the plethora of senses of function.