J. Lachlan Mackenzie - Böcker

This book is the first comprehensive presentation of Functional Discourse Grammar, a new and important theory of language structure. The authors set out its nature and origins and show how it relates to contemporary linguistic theory. They demonstrate and test its explanatory power and descriptive utility against linguistic facts from over 150 languages across a wide range of linguistic families. After a full introduction the book is divided into chapters concerned with the four levels of grammatical representation - pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic, and phonological - each of which has its own hierarchical structure. Functional Discourse Grammar offers a thorough account of how the use and meaning of language influence linguistic form by conditioning two levels of formulation which feed into two levels of encoding, all with their own specific characteristics. The book offers an ideal introduction to the theory and its applications in typology and description for scholars in linguistics and related fields from graduate students upwards.

This book is the first comprehensive presentation of Functional Discourse Grammar, a new and important theory of language structure. The authors set out its nature and origins and show how it relates to contemporary linguistic theory. They demonstrate and test its explanatory power and descriptive utility against linguistic facts from over 150 languages across a wide range of linguistic families. After a full introduction the book is divided into chapters concerned with the four levels of grammatical representation - pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic, and phonological - each of which has its own hierarchical structure. Functional Discourse Grammar offers a thorough account of how the use and meaning of language influence linguistic form by conditioning two levels of formulation which feed into two levels of encoding, all with their own specific characteristics. The book offers an ideal introduction to the theory and its applications in typology and description for scholars in linguistics and related fields from graduate students upwards.

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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.

Crucial Readings in Functional Grammar is an invaluable resource to anyone working in Functional Grammar, student and scholar alike. It contains important articles that have led to new avenues of research in the theory beyond Dik's two-volume Functional Grammar (1997), each concluded with a short paragraph with suggestions for further research. The book also contains an introduction to current Functional Grammar theory by the editors. Crucial Readings is unique in bringing together in one volume the various ideas that complement Dik's canonical presentation of the theory. The editorial contributions provide a comprehensive review of Functional Grammar publications.