Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1. Functional approach to the study of language -- 2. Data base -- 3. Outline -- Notes -- Chapter 2: Methodology -- 1. Thematicity and topicality -- 2. Topicality and the quantitative method -- 3. Limitations to the quantitative method -- Chapter 3: Chamorro morphology and syntax -- 1. Phonology -- 1.1. Phonemic inventory -- 1.2. Stress rule -- 1.3. I-umlaut -- 2. Morphology -- 2.1. The make-up of the noun phrase -- 2.2. Verb phrase morphology -- 2.3. Word order -- Notes -- Chapter 4: The role of topicality in a general comparison of the coding devices of transitive propositions -- 1. Preliminaries -- 2. Quantitative results and graphs -- 3. Discussion -- 3.1. The transitive construction -- 3.2. The antipassive construction -- 3.3. The passive construction -- 4. Preliminary conclusions -- Notes -- Chapter 5: Functional analysis of passives in Chamorro -- 1. Counterexamples to the general function of the Chamorro passive -- 2. MA-passives as distinct from IN-passives -- 3. Topicality and obligatory passives -- 3.1. Number -- 3.2. Animacy -- 3.3. Pronouns and the hierarchy of topicality -- 4. Passives, topicality, and agentivity -- 4.1. Topic-shift -- 4.2. Second person Objects -- 4.3. Complement constructions -- 4.4. Direct quote discourse in narratives -- Notes -- Chapter 6: A functional look at the antipassive -- 1. Preliminaries -- 2. The indefinite antipassive -- 3. The demoting antipassive -- 3.1. Affectedness of the object -- 3.2. Identity of the Agent -- 3.3. A pragmatic functional correlate for the demoting antipassive -- 4. Aspect -- 5. General function of the antipassive -- Notes -- Chapter 7: Complex sentence constructions -- 1. The ergative infix -UM- -- 1.1. Complement clauses -- 1.2. Distribution of -UM- in other complex clauses.

1.3. General characteristics of the ergative -UM- construction -- 2. Nominalizations -- Notes -- Chapter 8: Discoure organization and paragraph thematicity -- 1. Thematicity and subject coding -- 1.1. Thematicity and the general rule of topicality -- 1.2. Thematicity and the rule of topic-shift -- 1.3. Conclusions -- 2. Thematicity and subject inversion -- Notes -- Chapter 9: Conclusions -- Appendix A: Sample story -- Appendix B: List of Abbreviations -- References -- Index.