Remarks on layering in a cognitive-functional
language production model
Jan Nuyts
- Introduction
In this chapter I will take another look at the phenomenon of the layering of
qualificational categories, in language and beyond. The layered representa-
tion of the clause is a core concept in the framework of Functional
Grammar (henceforth FG) as developed by Dik (1989b, 1997) and
Hengeveld (1989, this volume). In this chapter I will adopt a basic ap-
proach to linguistic theorizing which is in a few respects substantially
different from that advocated in ‘standard FG’ (as represented in Dik
1997), viz. what I have called a cognitive-pragmatic or cognitive-functional
approach (Nuyts 1992a, 2001a). This approach shares with FG a strongly
functionalist orientation in the analysis of linguistic structure. But it devi-
ates from mainstream FG in adopting a much more radically cognitive
orientation, and, to the extent that there are cognitive assumptions relating
to (dimensions of) FG (cf. Dik 1987a, 1989), in adopting a different view
on the relationship between linguistic structures in the grammar and con-
ceptual structures figuring in human thought. Correspondingly, a
grammatical framework based on these principles – what I have called a
Functional Procedural Grammar – has to assume more levels of representa-
tion and processing, some of which (notably the conceptual ones) involve
degrees of abstractness which go well beyond what would commonly be
admitted in FG. Moreover, the present framework is much more proce-
durally oriented, assuming that producing linguistic expressions is a
strongly interactive and flexible process.^1
As a consequence, the present framework leads to a view of the layering
of qualifications which is substantially different from the standard FG con-