Interfaces, mismatches, and the architecture of Functional Discourse Grammar

This chapter describes and delimits the nature of interfaces in FDG. The different interface conditions across languages are defined in terms of wellestablished typological hierarchies: for each language, a basic setting on these hierarchies predicts the overall working of the interfaces. In addition, the Fund states numerous language-specific settings, such as its alignment system, the permissibility of zero anaphora, the presence of cliticization, etc. It is also argued that within the Fund there are compartments corresponding to each of the Levels in the grammar: for every lexical item and for every construction, its interpersonal, representational, morphosyntactic, and phonological aspects are stored separately. although the overall model is strongly top-down, some bottom-up processes are proposed, but these are restricted to the Fund and the Contextual Component. On this foundation, the chapter discusses mismatches across FDG’s four levels of organization and shows that all possible mismatches may occur. Some mismatches follow from well-established typological hierarchies while others are the result of basic choices a language makes among various typological options. Bottom-up processes in the Fund are needed in order to account for certain types of mismatches, especially, but not exclusively, those involving feedback from the Phonological Level to higher levels.