THE MORPHOSYNTACTIC NATURE OF FUNCTIONAL SHIFT

Abstract

There had been many approaches to the study of functional shift in English: the semantic approach, pragmatic approach, cognitive approach, syntactic approach, morphological approach, among others. Consequently, there exists the problem of assigning an accurate domain to functional shift in English since scholars who adopted any of these approaches claim that functional shift belongs to that particular domain. In this study, having observed the prevalent trends, the study tries to bridge the gap by proving that no single domain can lay an absolute claim on functional shift because it has a wide range of coverage. However, there are domains that are primary to functional shift. These are morphology and/or syntax. Since no single domain can monopolize functional shift as a process, the study chooses the combination of morphology and syntax; hence the morphosyntatic approach. Functional shift is therefore, a communicative linguistic element belonging to both morphology and syntax. This paper seeks to critically examine the morphosyntactic nature of functional shift and possibly establish the relationship between functional shift and morphosyntax.