Given information is information that is assumed by the addresser to be known to/assumed
by/inferable by the addresser at the time of the utterance because it is:
i. common/shared knowledge
ii. part of the extralinguistic context
iii. previously established in the discourse
Given information is usually:
i. placed early in a sentence
ii. spoken with little stress
iii. often reduced, abbreviated or ellipsed
Pieces of information that have close association with something that has been introduced in
the discourse previously are taken as given.
Also, as most kinds of discourse have implicit speakers and addressees, interactors always
take first and second speaker pronouns to be given information.
New information is information that is assumed by the addresser NOT
i. to be known to/assumed by the addressee
ii. previously established in the discourse
New information is usually:
i. placed late in the sentence
ii. stressed
iii. expressed in more elaborate fashions
The terms topic and theme are often used interchangeably to refer to the initial constituent
of a sentence which is the proposition that is being talked about.
The terms rheme and comment are often used interchangeably to refer to the part of the
sentence that provides information about the topic/theme.
