Blurb:

This chapter by Christopher Butler explores the issue of form/meaning relations in respect of similarities and differences between a number of functional theories of language: the Cardiff (Systemic Functional) Grammar and a range of other approaches, namely the Sydney (Systemic Functional) approach, Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and also Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar and Goldberg’s Cognitive Construction Grammar as representative of cognitive/constructionist models. It discusses the somewhat diverse mechanisms through which form and meaning are related in the various approaches. pointing to some important overall characteristics of the various models which help explain the difference in handling of form/meaning relations.