Information Structure in Spoken English - A Systemic Functional Linguistics View - Gerard O'Grady
From Initial to Target State: The Dynamic Unfolding of Propositions
Information Structure in Spoken English - A Systemic Functional Linguistics View - Gerard O'Grady
Gerard O'Grady [+]
Cardiff University
Description
Chapter 5 considers IS from a different perspective; namely predictability between classes of lexical items where an earlier item prospects a later one. In the chapter I outline a series of chaining rules which are supplemented by a number of formal devices and argue that they are sufficient to account for the dynamic and incremental flow of wordings and the chaining of tone groups in English as speakers achieve target state. The second part of the chapter reviews the concept of the mutuality of information and argues that speakers do not share information but rather signal their and their interlocutors’ unequal access to information/knowledge on a moment by moment basis.