There is significant synchronic evidence of the close relationship between anaphoric and grammatical agreement even within the grammatical structures of a single language. It is possible to predict clear syntactic differences between a grammatical agreement marker and a morphologically incorporated pronoun. What is required is a theory of grammatical function that integrates the properties of argument functions, such as subject and object; and discourse functions, such as topic and focus. An analysis of this aspect of Chichewa, a Bantu language, indicates that important parameters of change and variation lie in surface form--the external phonologically interpreted morphology and phrase structures. The pronominal incorporation property is such a parameter; when it is combined with postulations about grammatical theory and discourse function, fundamental differences appear to be explained between syntactic structures organized by grammatical agreement with governed functions and anaphoric agreement with discourse functions. (Author/MSE)