Information structure and the English left-periphery (original) (raw)

Fundamental Sentential Level Issues of English Information Structure.pdf

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 2013

This paper is an exploration into the fundamental sentential level issues of English information structure: the order in which information is distributed within the sentence, the given/new status of the information exchanged, the contextual constraints on the given/new status, and the syntactical devices used to indicate this given/new status. The conclusion that these issues are fundamental to sentential level English information structure is based on the studies of Birner and Ward (1998), Ward and Birner (2001), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), Erteschik-Shir (2007), and others. The perspective from which these issues are viewed in the paper adopts Quirk et al. (1985)’s comprehensive approach in which a linguistic construction is discussed with regard to its syntactic features in relation to its pragmatic function under contextual constraints. At the discourse level, these issues can be discussed within Winter (1994)’s clause-relational approach to text analysis in which the clause is viewed as a device of co-relevance constructing and distributing information. Given and new information status, information distribution, information distribution signals and contextual constraints are embedded in the relations held among the clauses which can be interlocked to create the logical structure of the whole text. However, discourse level information structure does not fall within the scope of this paper.

Information Structure: The final hurdle?

Dutch journal of applied linguistics, 2013

Although texts produced by (very) advanced Dutch learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) may be perfectly grammatical, they often feel distinctly non-native. Dutch, as a verb-second language, makes separate positions available for discourse linking and aboutness-topics. Although the English sentences of these advanced learners conform to the Subject-Verb-Object order of English, the pre-subject adverbial position in English is made to perform the information-structural function of the verb-second discourse-linking position, producing texts that are perceived as non-native, without being ungrammatical. A side-effect of this L1 interference is the underuse of special focusing constructions in English, like the stressed-focus it-cleft. This paper investigates the progress of Dutch writers towards a more native-like use of the pre-subject position and the it-cleft in a longitudinal corpus of 137 writings of Dutch university students of English. We conclude that information-structural differences present the final hurdle for advanced Dutch EFL writers.

Nomi Erteschik-Shir. 2007. Information structure: The syntax–discourse interface

Functions of Language, 2009

This book is of interest to those studying, researching, and teaching in the variously labelled field of 'information structure' (IS) (Halliday 1967), 'information packaging' (Chafe 1976), or 'information flow' (Chafe 1979), which explores the strategies whereby information is expressed to meet the communicative demands of a particular situation, a central topic in linguistics, computer science, cognitive science, information science and philosophy. In spite of its importance in the 'information age' , there is no consensus in modern linguistics on the place of information structure in the grammar, nor on what a theory of IS should look like. Two factors contribute to this controversy. One is the fact that, for better or worse, IS is rife with theoretical frameworks, each with its own focus, with the effect that a considerable range of definitions, identificational criteria and terminology for IS categories have mushroomed in a myriad of studies. The second reason is the wide coverage of the field. For IS not only relates to virtually all the established levels of linguistic description, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, and semantico-pragmatic, but also, in order to achieve explanatory adequacy, IS accounts integrate cross-disciplinary insights from rhetoric, sociology, cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, computing science, literary studies, and cultural or ethnographic studies. And, still further, there is an enormous variation in the particular IS devices attested by cross-linguistic investigations. A theory on IS is therefore bound to be multifaceted and complex (see Gómez-González 2001) and any survey of the field cannot but be seen as a rather bold undertaking. Nomi Erteschik-Shir has had the courage to tackle this tricky task in a book published in a series of Oxford 'surveys' conceived as accessible, critical, balanced and up-to-date overviews of major topics in linguistics. Accordingly, the book is meant 'to introduce the reader to IS methodology with an emphasis on both descriptive and theoretical rigor' (p. 6), with the hope that it 'will help further a more constructive dialogue leading to a better understanding of the division of labor between syntax and IS' (p. 79). Nevertheless, potential readers should be warned that the volume seems to be closer to a monograph on Erteschik-Shir's (1997, 2006) and Erteschik-Shir and

Informativity of the sentence information structure: word order

Language as Information, 2014

introduction of the term information structure virtually initiated the research on semantic relationships between sentence structure elements based on the discursive position of an utterance. His work has greatly contributed to the defining of information structure as a formal element in the pragmatic structuring of propositions in the discourse (Lambrecht 1994) in terms of the relationships between linguistic tools and circumstances on the one hand and/or speaker's intentions on the other. Given that the analysis of this relationship is almost entirely novel to Slavic linguistics, I intend to present some new data on the clitic and clitic cluster positioning in the linear order of Croatian sentences. I will offer an account of the basic features of the multi-leveled approach to the analysis of examples containing clitics and clitic clusters, which will allow for the establishment of criteria to classify sentences as unmarked or marked from the point of view of information structure. The premise underlying the work reported here is that information structure is part of the conceptual structure. Within the Theory of Parallel Architecture (Jackendoff 2002), conceptual structure is the component of grammar that enters into a systematic relationship with the units of the phonological and syntactic component, determining the informational potential of the sentence. The empirical part presents preliminary research results on the relationship between the placement of clitics and clitic clusters and the information structure in Croatian, a so-called "free word-order" language. The goal of this study is to set the ground for establishing the constraints to the combinatorial properties of clitic and clitic cluster units and the hierarchy among them.

Topicalization and left-dislocation: a functional opposition revisited

Journal of Pragmatics, 2001

In this case study, we use conversational data from the Switchboard corpus to investigate the functional opposition between two pragmatically specialized constructions of English: Topicalization and Left Dislocation. Specifically, we use distributional trends in the Switchboard corpus to revise several conclusions reached by Prince (1981a, 1981b, 1997) concerning the function of Left Dislocation. While Prince maintains that Left Dislocation has no unitary function, we argue that the distinct uses of the construction identified by Prince can be subsumed under the general function of topic promotion. While Prince claims that Topicalization is a more pragmatically specialized construction than Left Dislocation, we argue that Left Dislocation has equally restrictive and distinct use conditions, which reflect its status as a topic-promoting device. We conclude that computational corpus methods provide an important check on the validity of claims concerning pragmatic markedness.

Contrasts and Positions in Information Structure

2012

Information structure, or the way the information in a sentence is 'divided' into categories such as topic, focus, comment, background, and old versus new information, is one of the most widely debated topics in linguistics. This volume incorporates exciting work on the relationship between syntax and information structure. The contributors are united in rejecting accounts that assume designated syntactic positions associated with specific information-structural interpretations, and aim instead to derive information-structural conditions on word order and other phenomena from the way syntax and syntax-external systems interact. Beyond this shared aim, the authors of the various chapters advocate a number of approaches, based on different types of data (syntactic, semantic, phonological/phonetic) from a range of languages. The book is aimed at specialists in syntax and/or information structure, as well as students and linguists in related fields keen to familiarise themselves...