The functional approach to grammatical description takes the semantics of grammar as the starting point and structuring principle of the description. It is assumed that the total of meanings/functions coded in the grammars of languages derives from notions, relations and operations related to the two basic functions of human language, viz. cognition and communication. The union set of these objects can be grouped in a manageable set of areas, called functional domains of language. These constitute the highest structuring units and are presupposed in the functional description of any language. Every language codes some of the concepts, functions and operations involved at the level of grammar, codes others in the lexicon and ignores yet others, leaving them, perhaps, to inference. The following is a set of functional domains that have proved useful in general comparative grammar and in linguistic description.
| # | functional domain | main areas |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Substantive notions and denomination | nominal classification, onomastics, relationality, formation and modification of substantive notions |
| 2 | Quantification, measure, and ordering | plurality, counting, non-numeral quantification, measurement and collection |
| 3 | Reference | anchorage (incl. deixis), individuation, accessibility and phora (incl. reference tracking), demarcation of referential expression (incl. determination) |
| 4 | Situation | types of situation, holistic vs. analytic representation (ideophones, verb series), temporal design of situation core (time stability, phases and boundaries), quality and quantity of situation core (manner, intensification, gradation) |
| 5 | Predication | types and strategies of predication, existence, presentation, equation, categorization, characterization (property, comparison), stative predication, change of category and quality; secondary predication |
| 6 | Possession | possession in reference, possessive predication, possession and participation, past and future possession |
| 7 | Participation | semantic roles, hierarchy of syntactic functions, actor and control (causation, actor demotion), undergoer and affectedness (applicative constructions, introversion), indirectus, experience (desideration, perception, feeling), theme, peripheral roles, meteorological ambience |
| 8 | Space | spatial reference points, spatial regions, spatial distance, rest (posture, location), motion, local relations |
| 9 | Time | temporal reference points (moment and span), temporal relations (simultaneity, succession) |
| 10 | Modality | obligation, possibility, volition; validation, epistemics, evidentiality, evaluative modality (acceptance, regret) |
| 11 | Negation | semantic scope of negation, negated coordination, negation and quantification, negation of notions |
| 12 | Junction | proposition vs. state-of-affairs, intrinsic relations (content propositions), extrinsic relations (logical relations, concrete relations) |
| 13 | Discourse structure | thematic structure articulation, activation of referent (topicalization, reuse), focusing, emphasis, thetic statement |
| 14 | Communicative relations | communication channel, politeness and etiquette, illocution (declaration, denial and contradiction, exchange of information, directive illocution, offer and acceptance, excuse and forgiveness, good wishes and curses), exclamation; metalinguistic operations |