Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

A Synopsis of Role and Reference Grammar*

Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.

SUNY Buffalo

0. Introduction^1

This paper is a synopsis of Role and Reference Grammar [RRG]. The first

detailed exposition of the theory was Foley & Van Valin (1984) [henceforth

FVV]. This paper brings together the main points of the theory as devel­

oped in FW with the refinements and expansions that have resulted from

the continuing research in RRG.

There are two main ways of distinguishing a particular theory from

other approaches; one is in terms of the general perspective taken toward

the subject matter, and the other is with respect to the technical details of

the theories. RRG may be labelled a "structural-functionalist theory of

grammar"; this is intended to situate it on a continuum of perspectives

ranging from extreme formalist at one end to radical functionalist at the

other. The extreme formalist position is exemplified by Chomsky's view of

a language as "a set of structural descriptions of sentences, where a full

structural description determines (in particular) the sound and meaning of

a linguistic expression"(1977:81).^2 Language, in this view, is reduced to

grammar (cf. Chomsky 1981:4), and there is no place within the definition

of linguistics that follows from this characterization of the object of inquiry

for the study of the communicative functions of language or even for sub­

stantive semantics. At the other end of the continuum is the radical

functionalist conception of "emergent grammar" as proposed by Hopper

(1987) and others. This view denies the validity of the Saussurean concep­

tion of grammar as a structural system and attempts, in essence, to reduce

grammar to discourse. Grammar, to the extent that it exists, is a collection

of fixed phrases, formulaic expressions, and elements coding differential