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  • Cited by 1456
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      05 June 2012
      08 September 1994
      ISBN:
      9780511620607
      9780521587044
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620607
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.6kg, 408 Pages
      • Subjects:
      English Language and Linguistics: General Interest, Language and Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
      Series:
      Cambridge Studies in Linguistics (71)
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    Subjects:
    English Language and Linguistics: General Interest, Language and Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
    Series:
    Cambridge Studies in Linguistics (71)
    Information

    Book description

    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.

    Reviews

    ‘It represents the state of the art in functional syntax.’

    Source: Journal of Linguistics

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