Funciones pragmáticas marcadas y no marcadas

Abstract

This paper puts forward a typology of pragmatic functions which differs in  some basic respects from the ones proposed so far in the Functional  Grammar literature by Watters (1979), Dik et al (1981), de Jong (1981) and  Dik (1989). In the first place, it is argued that a distinction between  unmarked and marked pragmatic functions contributes to the typological  adequacy of the theory. As regards intra-clausal pragmatic functions, four  possible criteria of markedness are revised: lexical category, type of  information, assignment of syntactic function and the order of clause  constituents. The pragmatically-governed syntactic alignment of clause  constituents that includes the syntax-phonology mapping is selected as the  most accurate criterion for pragmatic function markedness. With reference to  extra-clausal pragmatic functions, the marked status of the topic as theme  and of the tail as focus are discussed.