Functional Grammar and Verbal Interaction (review)

This is a collection of thirteen articles, eleven of which were originally presented at the Seventh International Conference on Functional Grammar in Córdoba, Spain, 23–27 September 1996. The contributors work within the model of functional grammar developed by Simon Dik (The theory of functional grammar, 2 vols, ed. by Kees Hengeveld, Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997). The volume is divided into three parts: discourse and grammar, the interpersonal component, and information structure.

Articles in Part 1 contribute to the development of a functional grammar of discourse. In ‘The multilayered structure of the utterance: About illocution, modality and discourse moves’ (1–23), Co Vet attempts to reformulate the structure of the clause within functional grammar and in doing so argues for the addition of a pragmatic module to the theory. Ahmed Moutaouakil’s ‘Benveniste’s “récit” and “discours” as discourse operators in functional grammar’ (25–41) is an attempt to account for the behavior of French verb forms, personal pronouns, deictic expressions, and performative and modal verbs by the introduction of a discourse dichotomy (récit vs. discours) in functional grammar. In ‘Textual cohesion and the notion of perception’ (43–58) Mohammed Jadir uses passages from two French texts containing perception verbs to examine the notion of perception in functional grammar. In ‘Structure and coherence in business conversations’ (59–75) Ans A. G. Steuten proposes a model to handle the internal structure of business conversations and then applies this model to an actual business conversation which occurred in a Dutch hotel. Finally, Marinus van der Berg’s ‘An outline of a pragmatic functional grammar’ (77–103) discusses the interaction between three modules within functional grammar: the message module, the pragmatic module, and the grammar module.

The papers of the second section deal with the interpersonal level of functional grammar. ‘Illocution and grammar: A double-level approach’ (107–27) by Frank Liedtke examines the relationship between the propositional level of grammar and the speech act level. In ‘Concession in Spanish’ Mily Crevels argues that in Spanish there is a correlation between four different semantic layers and the different expressions of Spanish concessive clauses. Co Vet’s second contribution, ‘Epistemic possibility in the layered structure of the utterance’ (149–65), is concerned with the semantics of three French modal expressions: peutêtre (que) ‘maybe (that)’, il se peut que ‘it can be that’, and il est possible que ‘it is possible that’. John H. Connolly finds that information can be characterized well by combining functional grammar and situation semantics in ‘Information, situation semantics and functional grammar’ (168–89).

Information structure is the focus of Part 3. In ‘What to do with topic and focus?’ (193–214) A. Machtelt Bolkestein argues in favor of an independent discourse module. Elena Martínez Caro’s ‘Parallel focus in English and Spanish: Evidence from conversation’ (215–42) is an examination of a subtype of focus in naturally occurring Spanish and English data. ‘Polish main clause constituent order and FG pragmatic functions’ (243–66) by Anna Siewierska appeals to a functional grammar interpretation of the notions topic and focus to account for word order variability in a corpus of 775 Polish clauses. J. Clachlan Mackenzie deals with fragmentary speech in functional grammar in ‘The basis of syntax in the holophrase’ (267–95).

This volume is well edited, includes a subject index and name index, and is generally free of typographical error. Given the highly theoretical nature of the volume, it will be of most interest to those concerned with formal aspects of the theory of functional grammar.