The Syntax Information Structure Interface

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these notions are often taken for granted, they are still poorly

Gupton presents students, academics, and researchers with his research into a quantitative and qualitatively based clausal word order for the Iberian Penninsula language of Galician, drawing from his

This introduction to information structure discusses a wide range of phenomena on the syntax-information structure interface. It examines whether information structure maps onto syntax, and if so how

This book addresses how core notions of information structure (topic, focus and contrast) are expressed in syntax.The authorspropose that the syntactic effects of information structure come about as a

In this book, Nomi Erteschik-Shir develops a new theory of focus structure, integrating insights from syntax, semantics, phonology and pragmatics. She explores the role of focus structure in grammar, examining the interface between focus structure and syntax, the semantics of focus structure and the intonation associated with it. Dr Shir defines a grammatical level of f-structure (focus structure) which is an annotated s-structure in which topic and focus constituents are marked. F-structure feeds both PF (Phonological Form) and semantics and is sensitive to lexical information. Dr Shir argues that f-structure and not LF (Logical Form) is the input to a semantic rule of predication. One of the major results of Dr Shir's analysis is that wh-movement turns out to be subject to the same constraint which accounts for anaphora and other subject–object asymmetries.

In studying discourse, the problem for the linguist is to find a fruitful level of analysis. Carlota Smith offers a new approach with this study of discourse passages, units of several sentences or more. She introduces the key idea of the 'Discourse Mode', identifying five modes: Narrative, Description, Report, Information, Argument. These are realized at the level of the passage, and cut across genre lines. Smith shows that the modes, intuitively recognizable as distinct, have linguistic correlates that differentiate them. She analyzes the properties that distinguish each mode, focusing on grammatical rather than lexical information. The book also examines linguistically based features that appear in passages of all five modes: topic and focus, variation in syntactic structure, and subjectivity, or point of view. Operating at the interface of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, the book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in linguistics, stylistics and rhetoric.