The Workshop

As on previous occasions, the workshops will be devoted to a specific aspect of the theory – in this case the lexicon – and serves two major aims: (i) the development and improvement of theory of FDG (Hengeveld & Mackenzie 2008), in particular the position and internal structure of the lexicon, (ii) the publication of an edited volume on the lexicon in FDG consisting of the papers discussed during the workshop.

During the workshops, each paper will be discussed in great detail during a number of chaired sessions. Contributors will be asked to give a brief introduction (approx. 10 minutes), after which other participants can ask questions and make suggestions. The aim of this procedure is two-fold: it will help to improve the final versions of the papers and it will allow us create a unified set of papers.

The Topic

In the FDG model, long-term linguistic knowledge is represented in the form of sets of (language-specific) primitives that speakers can draw upon in the production of utterances. Lexemes form part of the set of primitives used during the operation of Formulation, together with frames (defining the possible combinations of elements at the Interpersonal and Representational Levels) and operators (symbolizing the grammatical distinctions required in the language under analysis). During Formulation, these primitives are combined: first the appropriate frames are selected, then lexemes are inserted into these frames, after which operators are applied. Subsequently, the complete interpersonal and representational configurations are fed into the Morphosyntactic Level and the Phonological Level, each of which has access to their own set of primitives (Hengeveld & Mackenzie 2008: 19-22).

Although certain aspects of the lexicon have been addressed and worked out in some detail either by Hengeveld & Mackenzie (e.g. the distinction between lexemes functioning at the Interpersonal Level and those functioning at the Representational level, the distinction between lexical and synthetic compounding) or by other authors (e.g. García Velasco 2007, 2009; Honselaar & Keizer 2009, Keizer & Honselaar 2009, Butler 2012), there are still a great many questions that have not yet, or not yet sufficiently, been answered or even addressed. The contributions to the workshop are meant to fill in at least some of the gaps.

 

Butler, C. (2012). An ontological approach to the representational lexicon in Functional Discourse Grammar. Language Sciences 34 (5): 619-634

García Velasco, D. (2007). Lexical competence and Functional Discourse Grammar. Alfa - Revista de Lingüística 51 (2): 165–187.

García Velasco, D. (2009). Conversion in English and its implications for Functional Discourse Grammar. Lingua 19: 1164-1185.

Hengeveld, K. & J.L. Mackenzie (2008). Functional Discourse Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Honselaar, W. & M.E. Keizer (2009). Lexicon and frames in FDG: A treatment of Dutch bekend zijn ‘to be familiar, well known’, behandelen ‘to treat’ and trouwen ‘to marry’. Lingua 119(8): 1212-1241.

Keizer, M.E. & W. Honselaar (2009). A Functional Discourse Grammar account of set nouns in Dutch and its implications for lexicography. International Journal of Lexicography 22(4): 361-397.