Functional Discourse Grammar

Abstract

Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG) is an expanded version of the Functional Grammar framework developed by Simon Dik at the University of Amsterdam from the 1970s through the middle of the 1990s. It occupies a middle position in the functional-to-formal continuum: it is functional in being centrally concerned with the effects of pragmatics and semantics on morphosyntactic and phonological form, and it is formal in being interested only in systematic effects on linguistic form and in admitting the existence of arbitrary form where functional explanations fail. FDG is often compared to Role and Reference Grammar and Systemic Functional Linguistics as well as to various cognitive approaches to language. FDG sees itself as responsible for accounting for the linguistic component within a wider model of verbal interaction. The grammar is flanked by components that house those other aspects, including a conceptual component, a contextual component, and an output component. FDG is strongly typologically based in its insistence on investigating the formal and functional limits of human linguistic form. The basic unit of analysis in FDG is the discourse act. All linguistic utterances are analyzed at four separate levels, each of which is internally layered. The interpersonal level deals with the actional aspect of language use, including pragmatics, and accounts for such things as reference, identifiability, illocution, and pragmatic functions such as topic, focus, and contrast. The representational level deals with semantics and accounts for such things as ontological categories (entity types) and distinctions related to tense, aspect, modality, evidentiality, polarity, quantification, qualification, location, manner, valency, semantic functions, and parts-of-speech. The morphosyntactic level deals with morphology and syntax and accounts for such things as word and morpheme order, alignment, dummy insertion, agreement, raising and other displacement phenomena, and the internal structure of words. The phonological level deals with phonology and accounts for such things as prosody, stress, reduplication (to the extent that it is phonological), tone and intonation, syllable structure, and the language’s inventory of phonemes and suprasegmentals. The grammar is flanked by a storehouse often called the fund, which houses primitives that feed the grammatical process at each level. In addition to the lexicon proper, the fund contains the structicon (frames and templates) and the grammaticon (operators). Much recent and current work in FDG concerns itself in one way or another with matters of scope within layers, interactions between levels, interfaces, and mappings between units at different levels or layers. In addition to a descriptively and explanatorily adequate account of specific data, the goal is often to produce generalizations in the forms of hierarchies that produce clear predictions in terms of expected typological patterns, diachronic pathways, and acquisition processes. The author wishes to thank several members of the FDG community for sending crucial references or for assistance with important publications in languages with which she is not familiar, in particular John Connolly, Evelien Keizer, Kees Hengeveld, Lachlan Mackenzie, Hella Olbertz, Thomas Schwaiger, and an anonymous reviewer.