ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the main tenets of a functionalist approach to grammar. It focuses on how extremely compatible this approach is with cognitive neuropsychology. The chapter begins with surveying the place of grammar within the human knowledge-representation and communication system. Well-coded human communicative system combines a number of distinct modules that can be divided, broadly, into two sub-systems: The cognitive representation system and the communicative code system. The human cognitive representation system comprises of three concentrically linked levels: The conceptual lexicon, Prepositional information and Multi-propositional discourse. The communicative coding system comprises of two distinct coding instruments: The peripheral sensory-motor code and the grammatical code. The chapter illustrates how three core components of human communication depend systematically on these three systems of knowledge representation. It explores the central communicative task of establishing the commonality of relevant mental representation between the two communicating minds.
