198 Peter Harder
however, that linear templates are part of the model, but have merely been
left out for purposes of simplification.
- Interface rather than underlyingness
A valuable feature of FDG is that it represents a movement in the direction
of looking at complex constructions in an ‘interface’ perspective rather in
terms of a ‘depth’ perspective where actual linguistic expressions end up as
the ‘surface’. In FDG, we have three different analyses of the same linguis-
tic chain, representing three different sets of facts about it. Not all levels
are involved in every case; but in standard cases they are. Moreover, under
specifiable conditions there may be correspondences or discrepancies that
create different types of relationships between the three levels. The linguist
using the model to describe an utterance will have his task defined in terms
which make good sense from both a formal and a functional point of view:
he has to look at interactive organization, representational organization,
and organization of the expression side, and see how they interlock.
An example of how the interface perspective is brought out in FDG is
the element of ‘downward layering’, in which the interpersonal level is ex-
panded to cover communicated content, reference and ascription instead of
leaving that to the representational component. The functions of reference
and ascription are standardly but not inevitably carried out by means of
noun phrases and verbs; and the separation between the interpersonal acts
and their linguistic representation makes possible a much more adequate
account of the complex relationship between sentence organization and en-
tity categories than previous models.
Combined with the top-down perspective, the simultaneous operation of
all three levels makes it possible to see a descriptive procedure as a set of
choices involving all levels, with an anchor outside the grammar itself in
the form of the speaker's communicative intention. From a discourse point
of view, this is clearly an advance in adequacy over a model that begins the
execution of a communicative intention by choosing a basic predicate.