Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

4 ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.

The notion of clause structure that a theory posits is a function of a
number of interacting factors. First, its overall conception of grammar is
central. Theories of autonomous syntax posit notions based on purely syn­
tactic constructs, and with the exception of RelG, such theories adopt
immediate constituent phrase structure representations. This is appropriate
for them, because this type of hierarchical organization can be arrived at by
purely formal operations, e.g. substitution and permutation, with no refer­
ence made to the meaning of the elements in the units under consideration.
Second, this choice is also a result of assumptions made about the nature of
grammatical relations. Theories which take them as primitive, LFG and
RelG, either disregard constituent structure representations altogether
(RelG) or supplement them with a schema for the direct representation of
grammatical relations (LFG). Theories which do not take them as primi­
tive, e.g. GB and GPSG, operate on X-bar-type immediate constituent rep­
resentations, and either ignore grammatical relations altogether (GPSG) or
derive them from X-bar representations (GB). The third factor which influ­
ences assumptions about clause structure is the extent to which typological
concerns are central to the theory. Theories which have been concerned
with phenomena in a wide range of languages from their inception, e.g.
LFG and RelG, operate primarily with non-X-bar type representations,
while those that have focussed primarily on English and closely related
European languages, e.g. GB and GPSG, assume immediate constituent
representations derived from the analysis of these languages.

1.2 The layered structure of the clause

These factors lead to a very different conception of clause structure in

RRG. Because it is a structural-functionalist theory concerned with the

interplay of syntax, semantics and pragmatics in grammatical systems, the

representation of clauses must allow for the representation of all of these

factors. This renders a representation of syntactic features only highly inap­

propriate. Second, relational information is very important in RRG, as will

be seen in sections 3 and 4, and therefore this kind of information must be

represented in a direct way in clause structure. This rules out a purely

immediate-constituent-structure type of representation. Third, the theory is

greatly concerned with typological issues. In particular, it seeks to uncover

those facets of clause structure which are found in all human languages;

hence the conception of clause structure it posits must be equally applicable