Editing Functional linguistics (section)

===Functional principles===
Several principles from pragmatics have been proposed as functional explanations of linguistic structures, often in a [[Typology (linguistics)|typological]] perspective.
*Theme first: languages prefer placing the theme before the rheme; and the subject typically carries the role of the theme; therefore, most languages have subject before object in their basic word order.<ref name="Song_2012" />
*Animate first: similarly, since subjects are more likely to be [[Animacy|animate]], they are more likely to precede the object.<ref name="Song_2012" />
*Given before new: already established information comes before new information.<ref name="Payne_1987">{{cite journal |last=Payne |first=Doris |date=1987 |title=Information structuring in Papago narrative discourse |journal=Language |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=783–804 |doi=10.2307/415718 |jstor=415718 }}</ref>
*First things first: more important or more urgent information comes before other information.<ref name="Payne_1987" />
*Lightness: light (short) constituents are ordered before heavy (long) constituents.<ref name="Haberland&Heltoft_1992">{{cite book |last1=Haberland |first1=Hartmut |last2=Heltoft |first2=Lars|editor-last1=Matras |editor-first1=Y | editor-last2=Kefer |editor-first2=M |editor-last3=Auwera |editor-first3=J V D | author1-link=Hartmut Haberland | title=Meaning and Grammar: Cross-linguistic Perspectives |publisher=De Gruyter |date=1992 |pages=17–26|chapter=Universals, explanations and pragmatics |isbn= 978-3-11-085165-6}}</ref>
*Uniformity: word-order choices are generalised.<ref name="Haberland&Heltoft_1992" /> For example, languages tend to have either prepositions or postpositions; and not both equally.
*[[Functional load]]: elements within a linguistic sub-system are made distinct to avoid confusion.
*Orientation: role-indicating particles including adpositions and subordinators are oriented to their semantic head.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Austin |first=Patrik  |year=2021 |title=A semantic and pragmatic explanation of harmony |journal=Acta Linguistica Hafniensia |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1080/03740463.2021.1987685 |s2cid=244941417 |doi-access=free }}</ref>