Functional grammar
Table of contents
Functional grammar (FG), as it will be understood in this article, is fundamentally connected with the name of Simon C. Dik. FG was given its first thorough presentation as a general theory of the grammatical organization of natural languages in Dik (1978). This book achieves three objectives: (a) it shows that it is not only possible but also particularly revealing to analyze the systematicity of language within the context of the ‘functional paradigm’, i.e. a body of work that conceives of language as being primarily an instrument of social interaction; (b) it provides a clear and suggestive framework for the practical analysis of language structure and language use; (c) it presents a number of detailed case studies within FG, for example of Subject and Object assignment in Philippine languages.