"The function of grammar is to express propositions in pragmatically 
structured form."  Knud Lambrecht, "Information structure and sentence 
form", 1994, p. 338.

What a wonderful sentence!! It doesn't quite say it all, but it says 
most of it. ("It" is "what grammar is for".)

For those who need a bit of a translation: A proposition is a comment 
about a topic -- a predicate about a subject, if you like. It's a 
"something" and what you have to say "about" that something. "The sky 
is blue" expresses a proposition which says about "the sky" that it "is 
blue".

Pragmatic structuring means that the grammar of a sentence arranges the 
words (and chooses them, e.g. pronouns vs. nouns) to accommodate what a 
speaker or writer wants to say, taking into account what the speaker 
believes the listener already knows, can easily bring to mind, and 
doesn't know yet. These three things are primary influences on how a 
sentence is structured.

Lambrecht's book, along with the first few chapters of Herb Clark's 
"Using language", are the two most enlightening books about language 
that I have read in many years. Lambrecht is written for (deep) 
insiders, while Clark isn't.

I've also been perusing the QUIGLS "Comprehensive grammar of the 
English language" for my book, and want to recommend a section to 
anyone who teaches writing. It's chapter 19, "From sentence to text", 
and it covers just about every move a good writer might make, from how 
adverb phrases are used to different ways of organizing paragraphs. If 
you know your basic grammar terminology, it'll be a challenging but 
worthwhile read. If you don't you will struggle with it. But I think 
even a person without a strong grasp of grammar terms might profit just 
from looking at the examples and how they're discussed. Towards the end 
of the chapter, quite a few real texts from different genres are 
closely analyzed.

This is a huge reference book, and maybe it isn't in every library. But 
it's definitely an excellent treatment of how meaning gets expressed in 
writing.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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