Language is a complex hierarchical system, with linguistic usage, meaning, structure and sound as subsystems each also having their own hierarchical organisation. In spoken languages, all this hierarchical information has to be projected onto one unidimensional set of words and sounds. Where do the different kinds of information end up when it has to be flattened in this way? Hengeveld shows how the Functional Discourse Grammar he helped develop answers that question.

Prof. dr. Kees Hengeveld is professor of Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam.