Functional Grammar and Language Change

Methodological Foundations

Abstract

In order to enhance its explanatory adequacy, the theory of Functional Discourse Grammar must account for the properties of natural languages in diachrony as well as in synchrony. The relevance of the notions of mapping and transparency for typological studies has been extensively demonstrated in Hengeveld and Mackenzie (2008). In this study, my main aim is to show, through an examination of the evolution of Arabic, that these notions can also be useful in the study of language change.