The articles in this volume analyse the noun phrase within the framework of Functional
Discourse Grammar (FDG) the successor to Simon C. Dik's Functional Grammar. In its current
form FDG has an explicit top-down organization and distinguishes four hierarchically organized
interacting levels: (i) the interpersonal level (language as communicational process) (ii) the
representational level (language as a carrier of content) (iii) the morphosyntactic level and
(iv) the phonological level. Together they constitute the grammatical component which in its
turn interacts with a cognitive and a communicative component. This comprehensive approach to
linguistic analysis is also reflected in this volume which contains rich and substantial
contributions concerning many different aspects of the noun phrase. At the same time the
analysis of a major linguistic construction from various perspectives is an excellent way to
test a new model of grammar with regard to some of the standards of adequacy for linguistic
theories.The book contains several papers dealing with matters of representation and
formalization of the noun phrase (the articles by Kees Hengeveld José Luis González Escribano
Jan Rijkhoff and Evelien Keizer). Other contributors are more concerned with the practical
application of the model with regard to discourse-interpersonal matters (Chris Butler John H.
Connolly) whereas the chapters by Dik Bakker and Roland Pfau and by Daniel García Velasco deal
with morphosyntactic issues. In all the variety of issues addressed and the range of languages
considered prove that one of the important advantages of the FDG model is precisely the fact
that grammatical phenomena can be treated from a semantic pragmatic morpho-syntactic
phonological or textual perspective in a coherent fashion.
