He is particularly associated with a layered approach to the analysis of pragmatics, semantics, morphosyntax and phonology, which was incorporated into Simon C. Dik's Functional Grammar and which Hengeveld developed into Functional Discourse Grammar,[3] of which he is considered "the intellectual father".
[6] After working as a probation officer in Utrecht 1980-1982,[2] he enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in Spanish Language and Literature and in Linguistics, gaining both master's degrees in 1986 cum laude.
In 1992 he gained a PhD degree (cum laude) with the thesis Non-verbal predication, with Simon C. Dik as his doctoral supervisor.
In 1996 he was appointed full professor of theoretical linguistics,[1] a position he held until his retirement in 2024.
[8] Hengeveld succeeded Simon C. Dik (1940-1995), whose final work, a two-volume presentation of Functional Grammar, he edited and saw through to posthumous publication in 1997.