Layered Structure and Reference in a Functional Perspective: Papers from the Functional Grammar Conference in Copenhagen 1990 (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series)

Michael Fortescue; Peter Harder; Lars Kristoffersen

ISBN 10: 9027250359 / ISBN 13: 9789027250353

Published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1992

About this Item

Hardcover, xiv + 444 pages, NOT ex-library. Book is clean and bright with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Issued without a dust jacket. -- This volume focuses on the evolution of the layered model of the clause, originally proposed by Simon C. Dik, and explores how this structure handles referentiality and pragmatic function. -- The primary concern of the book is the layered structure of the clause, which distinguishes between different levels of linguistic organisation: - The Predicate and Terms: The core semantic building blocks; - The Propositional Level: Dealing with the speaker's knowledge or mental representation; - The Illocutionary Level: Addressing the speech act and the interaction between speaker and addressee. The contributors examine how these layers interact with reference - the way language points to entities in the real or imagined world - and how grammatical operators function at different levels of this hierarchy. Key Thematic Sections: The book is organised into several areas of functional research: - Refining the Layered Model: Papers by scholars like Kees Hengeveld and Jan Nuyts propose modifications to the standard FG model, particularly concerning the distinction between semantic and pragmatic layers; - Reference and Term Structure: Discussions on how "terms" (noun phrases) refer to entities and the role of classifiers and definite articles within a functional framework; - Cross-Linguistic Perspectives: The volume includes analyses of diverse languages, including Danish, West Greenlandic, and Spanish, to test the universal applicability of the layered model; - Pragmatics and Discourse: Several essays explore how the layered structure accounts for focus, topic, and the speaker's subjective attitude. Published by John Benjamins, this collection is considered a milestone in the development of Functional Discourse Grammar. It moved the field beyond simple sentence analysis towards a more sophisticated understanding of how grammar reflects the "communicative intentions" of the speaker.

Seller Inventory # 009684

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Layered Structure and Reference in a Functional Perspective: Papers from the Functional Grammar Conference in Copenhagen 1990 (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series)
• Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9027250359
• ISBN 13: 9789027250353
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

This volume contains revised and expanded versions of those papers from the 1990 Functional Grammar Conference in Copenhagen that contributed specifically to the current investigation of clause structure in terms of semantic layers. One of the key concepts in this discussion is 'reference'. Some papers discuss ways in which previous accounts of reference need to be expanded and differentiated to provide a consistent picture of referential properties. The power of layered analysis to bring out fundamental similarities between languages of very different types is the theme of another group of papers, again with the referential properties of constituents playing a central role. By some contributors layered analysis is challenged, and the question is raised as to how it might fit into a dynamic and pragmatic picture of language. The book is rounded off by a comparison between layered structure in Functional Grammar and in Government and Binding Theory.