Comment clauses, Functional Discourse
Grammar and the grammar-discourse interface
Peter Harder
- Introduction
Hengeveld (this volume) introduces a new format for the incorporation of
discourse into the linguistic model of Functional Grammar, in which the
‘upward layering’ and the ‘modular’ approaches are integrated (FDG). In
this chapter I would like to take up the basic idea of a three-level integrated
model and use one of Hengeveld’s examples to discuss both the advantages
of his proposal and the reasons why a moderate change of the model in the
‘modular’ direction might improve the model’s capacity to bring out rela-
tions between discourse and grammar.
Hengeveld’s most radical break with previous FG models is perhaps in
the top-down derivational process, and in the motivation for that choice in
the form of an explicit adoption of a theory of speech production matching
the linguistic model point by point.
At the interpersonal level, the initial choice is an explicitly non-
grammatical entity, the move, defined in strictly interactional terms as cor-
responding to a single communicative intention; after that stage, however,
all choices reflect coded choices. After the top interpersonal level, there-
fore, all the purely code-free communicative choices have been made.
The representational level is conceived as consisting of entities of dif-
ferent orders which are described by the clause. Propositions (third-order
entities) are the top layer; speech acts are now above the scope of the rep-
resentational component. The main element of coding choice here is,
therefore, how to represent the referential and ascriptive choices made in
the interpersonal component. The expression level is described as consist-
ing of constituent structure, from paragraphs to words; I shall assume,