A New Architecture for Functional Grammar (Functional Grammar Series)

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The question of discourse representation 99

liefs of the speaker that lie behind the move, and also the intended outcome
of the move, as illustrated in the following example, in which C stands for
‘content of ’:


(5) M 1 :
[[BELIEVE (S) (NOT (KNOW (A) C(m 1 , m 2 )))], Precondition
[WANT (S) (KNOW (A) (C(m 1 , m 2 )))], Precondition


[CONVEY (S) (m 1 , m 2 ) (A)], Nucleus

[KNOW (A) (C(m 1 ))] Postcondition
[BELIEVE (S) (KNOW (A) (C(m 1 , m 2 )))] Postcondition
[NOT (WANT (S) (KNOW (A) (C(m 1 ))))]] (M 1 ) Postcondition

The postconditions list the anticipated outcomes of the move. Of course,
these may or may not coincide with the actual outcomes!
The above are by no means the only proposals in the FG literature
which relate to the representation of discourse. However, they give a rea-
sonable feel for the variety of notations that have been put forward, prior to
the emergence of FDG.
In FDG the representation of discourse structure is distributed among
the three modules. Within the interpersonal module the units recognized
include the move, the act and the illocution. The formulation of the inter-
personal structure proceeds along the following lines, where M stands for
Move, A for Discourse Act, P for Participant, ILL for Illocution, C for
Communicated Content, T for Ascriptive Act and R for Referential Act:


(6) (M 1 : [(A 1 : [ILL (P 1 )S (P 2 )A (C 1 : [...(T 1 ) (R 1 )...] (C 1 ))] (A 1 ))] (M 1 ))


In dialogues the layers of Turn and Exchange are also recognized.
At the representational level the propositional content is addressed.
The formulation of structure follows the following pattern, where p stands
for Propositional Content, e for State-of-affairs, f for Property and x for In-
dividual:


(7) (p 1 : [(e 1 : [(f 1 ) (x 1 )] (e 1 ))] (p 1 ))


Again, higher layers are recognized if appropriate, for instance Episode
and Story within the narrative genre.

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