Background and theoretical assumptions

Abstract

This chapter sets the scene for the rest of the work. The chapter first describes the historical roots and development of Lexical Functional Grammar, a nontransformational theory of linguistic structure, within the tradition of generative grammar. The chapter then explains the fundamental assumptions of the theory, its lexicalist orientation, and the central role that functional syntactic relations play. Subsequently, the structure of the rest of the book is set out, providing detailed accounts of each part, with brief summaries of each chapter. The chapterthen provides advice on how best to use the book, highlighting the primary focus of chapters and how the chapters relate to specific areas of linguistic structure and analysis, before concluding with references on other LFG overviews and introductions to the theory.