diff --git a/datafusion/functions/src/core/getfield.rs b/datafusion/functions/src/core/getfield.rs
index b00b8ea553f2..2f7e0300f298 100644
--- a/datafusion/functions/src/core/getfield.rs
+++ b/datafusion/functions/src/core/getfield.rs
@@ -72,20 +72,49 @@ impl ScalarUDFImpl for GetFieldFunc {
                 args.len()
             );
         }
-
-        let name = match &args[1] {
-            Expr::Literal(name) => name,
-            _ => {
+        let container_dt = &args[0].get_type(schema)?;
+        let accessor_expr = &args[1];
+        match (container_dt, accessor_expr) {
+            (DataType::Struct(_), Expr::Literal(name)) => {
+                let access_schema =
+                    GetFieldAccessSchema::NamedStructField { name: name.clone() };
+                return access_schema
+                    .get_accessed_field(container_dt)
+                    .map(|f| f.data_type().clone());
+            }
+            (DataType::Struct(_), _) => {
                 return exec_err!(
-                    "get_field function requires the argument field_name to be a string"
+                    "get_field function, when accessing a Struct, requires the second argument to be a string literal, got {}", 
+                    accessor_expr
                 );
             }
-        };
-        let access_schema = GetFieldAccessSchema::NamedStructField { name: name.clone() };
-        let arg_dt = args[0].get_type(schema)?;
-        access_schema
-            .get_accessed_field(&arg_dt)
-            .map(|f| f.data_type().clone())
+            (DataType::Map(fields, _), _) => {
+                // taken from field_util.rs GetFieldAccessSchema::get_accessed_field
+                match fields.data_type() {
+                    DataType::Struct(fields) if fields.len() == 2 => {
+                        // Arrow's MapArray is essentially a ListArray of structs with two columns. They are
+                        // often named "key", and "value", but we don't require any specific naming here;
+                        // instead, we assume that the second columnis the "value" column both here and in
+                        // execution.
+                        let value_field = fields
+                            .get(1)
+                            .expect("fields should have exactly two members");
+                        return Ok(value_field.data_type().clone());
+                    }
+                    _ => {
+                        return exec_err!(
+                            "Map fields must contain a Struct with exactly 2 fields"
+                        )
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+            (dt, _) => {
+                return exec_err!(
+                    "get_field function requires the first argument to be a Struct or a Map, got {}",
+                    dt
+                );
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     fn invoke(&self, args: &[ColumnarValue]) -> Result<ColumnarValue> {