ABSTRACT
Grammaticalised functions, the principle of functional transparency, and the formal means to encode them constitute the necessary components for explaining the form and function of an utterance and so is the necessary basis for the explanation of language change. This chapter presents a functionalist model that makes specific claims about the connection between semantics and syntax. The term ‘functional syntax’ is a cover term for a large number of approaches that differ significantly from each other in their theoretical assumptions and methodologies. The proposed model of the relationship between functions and the forms coding them lends itself rather well to the application of the Comparative Method. The chapter describes the coding means that have been discovered in various languages. Languages differ in the types of lexical categories they have. The fundamental difference between the proposed model and the existing formal or functional models is that linear orders are treated here as a coding means.
