Was ist und wozu brauchen wir eine Referenzgrammatik des Esperanto?

The two major descriptions of the Esperanto grammar, Kalocsay and Waringhien (1985) and Wennergren (2005), can be classified as manuals or compendia for internal use in the Esperanto speech community. As such they are mixtures of reference and pedagogical grammars. Their principal objective is to describe correct language usage and distinguish it from incorrect usage.
Both works are strictly limited to morphosyntactic descriptions and lack a systematic approach to pragmatic, semantic or phonological issues. They are not well suited for use as reference grammars. Functional Discourse-Grammar (FDG) offers interesting perspectives for setting up a reference grammar of Esperanto. The objective of such an enterprise is to embed the description of Esperanto in a proven theoretical framework and ascertain its usability in the international linguistic community, providing at the same time a sound basis for writing textbooks of the language. The Esperanto Academy is invited to take note of this proposal.