Information Flow

In discourse-based grammatical theory, information flow is any tracking of referential information by speakers. Information may be new, just introduced into the conversation; given, already active in the speakers' consciousness; or old, no longer active. The various types of activation, and how these are defined, are model-dependent.

Information flow affects grammatical structures such as

  • word order (topic, focus, and afterthought constructions).
  • active, passive, or middle voice.
  • choice of deixis, such as articles; "medial" deictics such as Spanish ese and Japanese sore are generally determined by the familiarity of a referent rather than by physical distance.
  • overtness of information, such as whether an argument of a verb is indicated by a lexical noun phrase, a pronoun, or not mentioned at all.


Famous quotes containing the words information and/or flow:

    Many more children observe attitudes, values and ways different from or in conflict with those of their families, social networks, and institutions. Yet today’s young people are no more mature or capable of handling the increased conflicting and often stimulating information they receive than were young people of the past, who received the information and had more adult control of and advice about the information they did receive.
    James P. Comer (20th century)

    Flow, flow the waves hated,
    Accursed, adored,
    The waves of mutation:
    No anchorage is.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)