A series of topical inquiries into linguistic problems, from the point of view of the theory of functional grammar. In addition to an overview of the theory, the following topics are investigated: predicate formation, causatives in Dutch, non-verbal predicates, the subject notion in ergative languages, constituent ordering, diachronic evolutions from VSO to SVO, postverbal subjects in Bantu, term coordination, cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions.