Editing Functional linguistics (section)

===Information structure===

{{See also|Functional sentence perspective|Information structure}}
 
Some key adaptations of functional explanation are found in the study of information structure. Based on earlier linguists' work, [[Prague Linguistic Circle|Prague Circle]] linguists [[Vilém Mathesius]], [[Jan Firbas]] and others elaborated the concept of theme–rheme relations ([[topic and comment]]) to study pragmatic concepts such as sentence focus, and givenness of information, to successfully explain word-order variation.<ref name="Firbas_1987">{{cite book |last=Firbas |first=Jan |editor-last=Dirven |editor-first=R. | editor-last2=Fried |editor-first2=V. | title=Functionalism in Linguistics |publisher=John Benjamins |date=1987 |pages=137–156|chapter=On the delimitation of the theme in functional sentence perspective |isbn= 9789027215246}}</ref> The method has been used widely in linguistics to uncover word-order patterns in the languages of the world. Its importance, however, is limited to within-language variation, with no apparent explanation of cross-linguistic word order [[Linguistic universal|tendencies]].<ref name="Song_2012">{{cite book |last=Song|first=Jae Jung |title=Word Order |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2012|isbn=9781139033930}}</ref>