In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, functional shift occurs when an existing word takes on a new
syntactic function
In linguistics, grammatical relations (also called grammatical functions, grammatical roles, or syntactic functions) are functional relationships between constituents in a clause. The standard examples of grammatical functions from traditional g ...
. If no change in form occurs, it is called a
zero derivation. For example, the word ''
like
In English, the word ''like'' has a very flexible range of uses, ranging from conventional to non-standard. It can be used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, particle, conjunction, hedge, filler, quotative, and semi-suffix.
U ...
'', formerly only used as a
preposition
Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
in comparisons (as in "eats like a pig"), is now also used in the same way as the
subordinating conjunction ''as'' in many
dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
s of English (as in "sounds like he means it"). The boundary between functional shift and
conversion
Conversion or convert may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''The Convert'', a 2023 film produced by Jump Film & Television and Brouhaha Entertainment
* "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman''
* ...
(the derivation of a new word from an existing word of identical form) is not well-defined, but it could be construed that conversion changes the lexical meaning and functional shift changes the syntactic meaning.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
uses functional shift, for example using a noun to serve as a verb. Researchers found that this technique allows the brain to understand what a word means before it understands the function of the word within a sentence.
[Liverpool University, U]
Reading Shakespeare has dramatic effect on human brain
18 December 2006
References
Syntax
{{syntax-stub