This volume, which represents a major advance on Simon Dik's final statement of the theory (1997), lays the foundation for the future evolution of FG towards a Functional Discourse Grammar. It rises to the double challenge of specifying the interface between discourse and grammar and of detailing the expression rules that link semantic representation and morphosyntactic form.
The opening chapter, by Kees Hengeveld, sets out in programmatic form a new architecture for FG which both preserves the best of the traditional model and offers a place for numerous recent insights. The remaining chapters are devoted to refining and developing the programme laid down by Hengeveld, bringing in data from a range of languages as well as theoretical insights inspired by adjoining frameworks. Of special interest are an account by Matthew Anstey of how current proposals arise from the history of FG and various chapters in which the model is brought much closer to an account of real-time language production, notably including the first ever detailed account of the workings of expression rules, by Dik Bakker and Anna Siewierska. The final chapter, also by Hengeveld, draws together the findings of the various chapters, culminating in an elaborated model that represents the most sophisticated statement of Functional Grammar currently available.
The volume thus gives a coherent account of FG as a theory which combines formal explicitness with a broad account of language functions.
J. Lachlan Mackenzie is Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Mariá de los Ángeles Gómez González is Senior Lecturer at Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
The Architecture of a Functional Discourse GrammarKees Hengeveld
Functional Grammar from its inceptionMatthew P. Anstey
Behind the scenes: Cognition and Functional Discourse GrammarCarlos Inchaurralde
The question of discourse representation in Functional Discourse GrammarJohn Connolly
Focus of attention in discourseFrancis Cornish
The complementarity of the process and pattern interpretations of Functional GrammarMichael Fortescue
Functional Discourse Grammar and language productionJ. Lachlan Mackenzie
Comment clauses, Functional Discourse Grammar and the grammar-discourse interfacePeter Harder
Functional Grammar and the dynamics of DiscourseMaría de los Ángeles Gómez-González
The problem of subjective modality in the Functional Grammar modelJean-Christophe Verstraete
Remarks on layering in a cognitive-functional language production modelJan Nuyts
Discourse structure, the Generalized Parallelism Hypothesis and the architecture of Functional GrammarAhmed Moutaouakil
Towards a speaker model of Functional GrammarDik Bakker and Anna Siewierska
EpilogueKees Hengeveld
