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This article addresses the question of how the distribution and role of English evidential -ly adverbs in the noun phrase can be accounted for using the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG). Both adverbs and adjectives occurring in noun phrases are categorized in various ways. The results of the categorization offer insights into the distribution of these adverbs and adjectives. Four generalizations are arrived at concerning the combination of evidential adverbs and adjectives in noun phrases. First, the lower in the FDG hierarchy the category of an adverb, the less frequent the occurrence of that category in the noun phrase. Thus, higher reportative adverbs are very frequent, and lower adverbs of event perception are very infrequent. Second, evidential adverbs do not modify adjectives that express the speaker’s subjective evaluation of the referent. Third, the higher-level reportative and inferential adverbs modify adjectives expressing permanent properties, whereas the lower adverbs of deduction and event perception do not. Finally, neither restrictiveness nor the evaluative vs descriptive nature of the adjective appears to solely determine the category of evidential modification of the adjective. We furthermore discuss the pragmatic effects of the evidential adverb in the noun phrase, such as distancing, and the stress shift that may accompany it.

It has been widely claimed in the literature that the sentence-final particle ba in Mandarin Chinese is a modal element. This article argues against this claim and shows that ba is an element that has a unified mitigating function with scope over the utterance as a whole. Using the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), and more specifically its hierarchical, layered organization, the article provides several arguments that support this new classification of ba. First, ba, like mitigators in general, but unlike modal elements, can occur in sentences with different basic illocutions. Second, ba may co-occur with modal elements of all different subtypes and thus cannot be a modal element itself. Third, ba may occur in sentences in which the speaker is highly confident of the propositional content. Fourth, unlike modal elements, ba may occur in certain types of non-propositional utterances. And fifth, the position that ba occupies with respect to other sentence-final particles shows that it has scope over the utterance as a whole. After thus arguing for the status of ba as a mitigator, we show how the general mitigating function of ba can acquire the more specific mitigating effects that have previously been attributed to it in the literature.

This paper examines the semantic and morphosyntactic complementation patterns of perception verbs in Brazilian Portuguese. Using the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar, five semantic complement types are identified. It is subsequently shown that these five types are in an implicational relationship, such that the set of semantic complement types that a certain perception verb in Brazilian Portuguese may take occupies a contiguous segment on a hierarchy of semantic complement types. The morphosyntactic complements of perception verbs in Brazilian Portuguese include noun phrases, finite, and non-finite clauses, the latter comprising progressive1 and infinitival forms. The second part of the study shows that the choice for one of these types can to a high extent be predicted from the semantics of the complements, using the same hierarchy of semantic complement types.

The aim of this paper is to show how the TAME system of A'ingae, a language isolate spoken in Colombia and Ecuador, can be captured within the theoretical framework of Functional Discourse Grammar. An important prediction in this theory is that the surface order of TAME expressions reflects the scope relations between them in their underlying representation. An initial analysis reveals that, with three exceptions, the A'ingae TAME system confirms this prediction. Closer inspection of the three exceptions, which concern basic illocution, evidentiality, and quantificational aspect, then reveals that on the one hand, the theoretical model has to be adapted, while on the other hand some of the A'ingae facts allow for an alternative interpretation.

In this introductory paper, we will briefly introduce FDG and its treatment of systems of tense, aspect, mood, evidentiality, polarity, mirativity and localization, as well as their lexical counterparts.

It follows from the ordering principles that are applied in Functional Discourse Grammar that the positional possibilities of markers of agreement and those of cross-reference are different. Markers of cross reference are predicted to occur closer to the verb stem, while markers of agreement would occupy peripheral positions. This paper tests these predictions using data from a variety of languages, and shows that for these languages the predictions indeed hold true. In demonstrating this, the paper furthermore proposes a new treatment for markers of agreement/cross reference in languages in which these optionally co-occur with a corresponding noun phrase. These markers are on a language-specific basis classified as either Contextual Agreement Markers or as Appositional Referential Markers. (Contains 2 tables.)

This epilogue addresses the most important topics and challenges for the Morphosyntactic Level in Functional Discourse Grammar that have been raised in the articles in this Special Issue. We begin by exploring the differences between the Morphosyntactic Level in FDG and the treatment of morphosyntactic phenomena in other linguistic frameworks. We then concentrate on the relevance of typological work to the construction of the formalism and to the organization of the Morphosyntactic Level. We conclude that one of its main advantages is its flexibility in accounting for the morphosyntactic diversity of the languages of the world. This flexibility is the result of three main aspects: the distinction between a configurational and a hierarchical ordering of units, the influence of external factors such as iconicity, domain integrity and functional stability, and compatibility with general observations on human language processing and production which result in a dynamic implementation of the Morphosyntactic Level.

Mandarin Chinese is rich in sentence‐final particles, which have to follow a rigid linear order when they cluster. In much of the literature, researchers focus on clarifying the functions of individual particles, with less attention being paid to the explanations of their highly restricted order. Based on corpus data and using the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG, Hengeveld & Mackenzie 2008), this paper explores the questions which particles can cluster and why they cluster in a specific order. We show that maximally three Mandarin sentence‐final particles can cluster, and we argue that their sequence is restricted by their positioning in a strict four‐layered hierarchical structure, in which each particle pertains to a specific semantic or pragmatic layer. In addition, Mandarin particles provide evidence that there are operators at a higher discourse level than so far assumed to exist in FDG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mandarin Chinese is rich in sentence‐final particles, which have to follow a rigid linear order when they cluster. In much of the literature, researchers focus on clarifying the functions of individual particles, with less attention being paid to the explanations of their highly restricted order. Based on corpus data and using the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG, Hengeveld & Mackenzie 2008), this paper explores the questions which particles can cluster and why they cluster in a specific order. We show that maximally three Mandarin sentence‐final particles can cluster, and we argue that their sequence is restricted by their positioning in a strict four‐layered hierarchical structure, in which each particle pertains to a specific semantic or pragmatic layer. In addition, Mandarin particles provide evidence that there are operators at a higher discourse level than so far assumed to exist in FDG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]