On Information Structure, Meaning and Form
Title | On Information Structure, Meaning and Form PDF eBook |
Author | Kerstin Schwabe |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
Total Pages | 584 |
Release | 2007 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9789027233646 |
This collection of articles offers a new and compelling perspective on the interface connecting syntax, phonology, semantics and pragmatics. At the core of this volume is the hypothesis that information structure represents the common interface of these grammatical components. Information structure is investigated here from different theoretical viewpoints yielding typologically relevant information and structural generalizations. In the volume's introductory chapter, the editors identify two central approaches to information structure: the formal and the interpretive view. The remainder of the book is organized accordingly. The first part examines information structure and grammar, concentrating on generalizations across languages. The second part investigates information structure and pragmatics, concentrating on clause structure and context. Through concrete analyses of topic, focus, and related phenomena across different languages, the contributors add new and convincing evidence to the research on information structure.
Information Structure and Sentence Form
Title | Information Structure and Sentence Form PDF eBook |
Author | Knud Lambrecht |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 406 |
Release | 1996-11-13 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 1316582418 |
Why do speakers of all languages use different grammatical structures under different communicative circumstances to express the same idea? Professor Lambrecht explores the relationship between the structure of the sentence and the linguistic and extra-linguistic context in which it is used. His analysis is based on the observation that the structure of a sentence reflects a speaker's assumption about the hearer's state of knowledge and consciousness at the time of the utterance. This relationship between speaker assumptions and formal sentence structure is governed by rules and conventions of grammar, in a component called 'information structure'. Four independent but interrelated categories are analysed: presupposition and assertion, identifiability and activation, topic, and focus.
The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics
Title | The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics PDF eBook |
Author | Keith Allan |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 967 |
Release | 2012-01-12 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 1139501895 |
Pragmatics is the study of human communication: the choices speakers make to express their intended meaning and the kinds of inferences that hearers draw from an utterance in the context of its use. This Handbook surveys pragmatics from different perspectives, presenting the main theories in pragmatic research, incorporating seminal research as well as cutting-edge solutions. It addresses questions of rational and empirical research methods, what counts as an adequate and successful pragmatic theory, and how to go about answering problems raised in pragmatic theory. In the fast-developing field of pragmatics, this Handbook fills the gap in the market for a one-stop resource to the wide scope of today's research and the intricacy of the many theoretical debates. It is an authoritative guide for graduate students and researchers with its focus on the areas and theories that will mark progress in pragmatic research in the future.
Comparative and Contrastive Studies of Information Structure
Title | Comparative and Contrastive Studies of Information Structure PDF eBook |
Author | Carsten Breul |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
Total Pages | 320 |
Release | 2010-09-09 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9027287848 |
This volume presents original comparative and contrastive research into various aspects of information structure (topic, focus, contrastivity, givenness, anaphoricity) as well as into forms and structures whose realisation depends on information-structural factors (clefts, dislocations, reflexives, null subjects, prosodic features, interrogatives) in a number of different languages (Catalan, English, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian). Each contribution emphasises differences or commonalities between the languages under investigation with respect to the realisation of information structural categories or with respect to the information structural implications of a given form or structure. The specific comparative-contrastive perspective of the volume makes a substantial contribution towards a better understanding of language specific and universal aspects of information structure. It raises significant questions and provides solutions for the formal representation and the functional properties of information structural categories.
Diachronic Studies on Information Structure
Title | Diachronic Studies on Information Structure PDF eBook |
Author | Gisella Ferraresi |
Publisher | Walter de Gruyter |
Total Pages | 231 |
Release | 2010-08-31 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 3110227479 |
In the last few years a lively discussion on information packaging has arisen, where traditional dichotomies Theme/Rheme, Topic/Comment and Focus/Background have been taken up again and partly reinterpreted. The discussion is mainly being held in syntax, but also in the fields of semantics and pragmatics. Some remarkable progress has been made especially in Focus phonology. Even if the role of information conveying and information packaging in the Indoeuropean languages was hinted at as early as in the classical studies of the Neogrammarians, this field has remained neglected in today's historical linguistics. This volume tries to partly cover this lack with a sample of papers which offer a various range of new empirical data analyzed from the point of view of information structure. The novelty of the papers consists in the modern theoretical perspective from which the data are analyzed and in the various phenomena considered, which range from the rise of clitic elements to word order change and verb movement. Editorial board Dr. habil. Kai Alter (Newcastle University Medical School) Prof. Dr. Ulrike Demske (Universität des Saarlandes) Prof. Dr. Ewald Lang (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Prof. Dr. Rosemarie Lühr (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) Prof. Dr. Thomas Pechmann (Universität Leipzig) Prof. em. Dr. Anita Steube (Universität Leipzig)
The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure
Title | The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure PDF eBook |
Author | Caroline Féry |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | 993 |
Release | 2016 |
Genre | Computers |
ISBN | 0199642672 |
This book provides linguists with a clear, critical, and comprehensive overview of theoretical and experimental work on information structure. Leading researchers survey the main theories of information structure in syntax, phonology, and semantics as well as perspectives from psycholinguistics and other relevant fields. Following the editors' introduction the book is divided into four parts. The first, on theories of and theoretical perspectives on information structure, includes chapters on topic, prosody, and implicature. Part 2 covers a range of current issues in the field, including focus, quantification, and sign languages, while Part 3 is concerned with experimental approaches to information structure, including processes involved in its acquisition and comprehension. The final part contains a series of linguistic case studies drawn from a wide variety of the world's language families. This volume will be the standard guide to current work in information structure and a major point of departure for future research.
Information Structure
Title | Information Structure PDF eBook |
Author | Malte Zimmermann |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | 429 |
Release | 2010 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 0199570957 |
A collection of overviews of approaches to the formal expression of information structure in natural language and its interaction with general principles of human cognition and communication.