FG from its inception 557.2. FG 4 as a framework for Functional Grammarians
It is always difficult to answer such questions as whether FG 4 creates
sufficient space for the Functional Grammar academic community to con-
tinue to share the one roof. The biggest problem is that the model is part of
a larger whole that needs articulation. Theoretically, we have seen that FG 4
touches upon many major areas that concern the FG community, but re-
mains silent on substantial issues such as the primitives and the lexicon.
As shown above, there has been no substantially new canonical FG
monograph since 1989. If anything, this survey underlines the need for
such a work, one that is perhaps more encompassing of diversity among
the FG community than previous volumes. From a practical perspective,
those teaching FG also deserve an up-to-date presentation of the theory,
and newcomers to the theory need a more user-friendly initiation if
Hengeveld’s increasingly elaborate notation becomes widely accepted.
Even the question what contemporary FG theory is, is hard to answer with-
out such a reference work.
Perhaps the word ‘architecture’, therefore, is particularly apt. By
analogy, I suggest FG could do with more engineers and builders. FG has
been in a design frenzy for many years now, as if having the right blueprint
will eventually manufacture the building all by itself. Needless to say, I
suggest that addressing perennial problems concerning the theory’s founda-
tions may offer more fruitful resources for development.
Notes
- I would like to thank Lachlan Mackenzie, Kees Hengeveld, Dik Bakker,
Chris Butler, and the late Machtelt Bolkestein for their assistance. - The references in Figure 1 are also indicative of the important geographical
centres of current Functional Grammar research: The Netherlands, Belgium,
Spain, Denmark, and Morocco. - The official Functional Grammar bibliography (De Groot and Olbertz 1999)
lists 1,141 references for 1978 to 1998. If one includes post-1998 publica-
tions and Dik’s works from 1966–1977, the total is at least 1,300. - Many of these problems have been identified by those working in computa-
tional implementations of Functional Grammar (Bakker 1994; Kwee 1994).
There are other important problems, such as the problem of the lexicon –
what place do observed semantic and syntactic regularities in the lexicon
have in Functional Grammar? Are there language-independent lexical
primitives, and more basically, where do particles, interjections, adverbs