Einf uhrung in die Pragmatik und Diskurs: Information ... uhrung in die Pragmatik und Diskurs: Information Structure V. Petukhova Universit at des Saarlandes Sommersemster 2016 basierend

Einfuhrung in die Pragmatik und Diskurs:Information Structure

V. Petukhova

Universitat des Saarlandes

Sommersemster 2016basierend auf Folien von A. Hornbach und I. Kruijff-Korbayova

Volha Petukhova [email protected] Pragmatik & Diskurs: Information Structure 01/07/2016

Information Structure

Plan fur heute

Motivation

Thema und Rhema

Fragetest fur IS

Fokus und Background

IS - Realisierungen

Kernlekture: Steedmann 2000 & Kruijff-Korbayova et al. 2003(siehe Kurshomepage)


Motivation

(1) Ein Schild in der Londoner U-Bahn:

Dogs must be carried.

Hunde mussen getragen werden.

Man muss einen Hund tragen.

Interpretation:

Wenn man einen Hund hat, muss man ihn tragen.


Motivation

(2) Schild in einer Synagoge:

Hats must be worn.

Man muss einen Hut tragen.

Es mussen Hute getragen werden.

Hute mussen getragen werden.

Interpretation:

Was man hier tun muss, ist einen Hut tragen.


Motivation

(3) Dogs must be carried.

Hunde mussen getragen werden.

(4) # Dogs must be carried.

# Hunde mussen getragen werden.

(5) Hute mussen getragen werden.

(6) # Hute mussen getragen werden.

(Großbuchstaben bezeichnen den Hauptakzent im Satz.)


Motivation

Beispiel aus einem Dialogsystem

(7) U: What is the status of the stove?

S: The stove is switched on.


Observations

Intonation, word order, syntactic structure and other aspectsof linguistic form are tightly related

Variation in these aspects of linguistic form is not arbitrary!

These aspects of linguistic form reflect the relation of theutterance to the context

Whether an utterance is appropriate or inappropriate in agiven context depends not only on what is said but also how

Recall: Grice’s Maxim of Manner


Information Strusture: Thema & Rhema

Speakers organize their utterances in a way that reflects theirmodel of the context and their communicative intentions (theintended context change) – Utterances both reflect and affectthe context.Intuitively, IS is a mean a speaker employs to present someparts of the meaning as context-dependent, and others ascontext-affecting. Thus,IS concerns a division (partitioning) of an utterance meaning:

Theme the part which relates it to the purpose of thediscourse and anchors the content to the context (i.e., whatspeaker and hearer are attending to); what the utterance isabout, the topic that the speaker means to address; may alsorestrict the context to aprticular type(s) of situation(s)Rheme the part which advances the discourse, i.e., adds ormodifies some information (i.e., the informative part); whatthe speaker says about the Theme, i.e., the Rheme issemantically predicated over the Theme

IS is an inherent aspect of meaning —it is an important factorin establishing coherence with respect to the context in whicha sentence is uttered.


Information Structure Partitioning

Two dimensions of utterance meaning partitioning:

Theme-Rheme partitioning

Background-Focus partitioning


IS Partitioning: Theme-Rheme

Theme-Rheme partitioning Partitioning of utterance meaning intowhat speaker means to address vs. what she wants tosay about it.This reflects an aboutness relation, i.e., the Rheme issemantically predicated over the Theme

Background-Focus partitioning within Theme and/or Rhemereflects an abstract notion of contrast betweenalternatives available in the discourse context,against which the actual utterance (its Theme andits Rheme) is cast


Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele

Dogs must be carried.[Hunde](Theme) [mussen getragen werden.](Rheme)

Hats must be worn.Hute mussen getragen werden.



(8) U: What is the status of the stove?

S: The stove is switched on.



Das Madchen [Theme] kauft eine Bluse. [Rheme]

Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.

Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse





















Question test for IS

Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test thecontext in which a particular IS is appropriate: the questiondetermines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer“fills” the Rheme.

Examples:Was macht das Madchen? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.Wer kauft eine Bluse? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.

Swapping the questions in the two examples results in incoherentQ-A pairs: the answers become infelicitous, because the ISpartitioning then does not match the context set by the question.




Examples:

Was macht das Madchen? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.Wer kauft eine Bluse? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.





Examples:Was macht das Madchen?

Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.Wer kauft eine Bluse? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.





Examples:Was macht das Madchen? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.

Wer kauft eine Bluse? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.





Examples:Was macht das Madchen? Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.Wer kauft eine Bluse?















Ask the appropriate question:

Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.Das Madchen kauft eine Bluse.


Question test IS

The linguistic form of an utterance may be compatible with severaldifferent IS partitionings (as reflected by different questions) Anutterance can have a range of possible IS partitionings of anutterance:

John ist von London nach Paris geflogen.

Was ist passiert?Was hat John gemacht?Von wo nach wo ist John geflogen?Wohin ist John von London aus geflogen?


IS Interpretation

Steedman defines the semantics of IS in terms of selecting onemember from a presupposed set of alternatives:

Theme presupposes a Rheme -alternative set, i.e., a set ofalternative propositions that could possibly answer thecorresponding question in the given context; Rheme thanrestricts the Rheme -alternative set to a singleton.Theme also presupposes a Theme -alternative set, i.e. a set ofalternative questions; Focus within Theme then restricts theTheme -alternative set to a singleton

These are pragmatic presuppositions that the relevantalternative set is available in the context.

Systematic recognition of alternative sets is an open researchquestion


IS realizations

There are various means that can be used;

The means can be used also in combination;

Different languages employ and combine them to differentdegrees, depending on their typological characteristics;

The means (strategies):

intonation (prosody); e.g., the predominant means in English(word) ordering; e.g. the predominant means in Slawiclanguages, also to some extent in German;morphological/grammatical marking; e.g., particles ‘wa’ and‘ga’ in Japanese;syntactic constructions, e.g. it-cleft, wh-cleft, passivization,etc.


IS: Meaning Differences

Smoke outsidei.e., If you (want to) smoke, do it outside.Smoke outside!i.e., If you are outside, smoke, or, what one does outside is smoke.All-Rheme reading: There is smoke outside!

Staff behind counter.i.e., Who should be behind the counter is (only) staff.Staff behind counter.i.e., What staff should do is be (only) behind the counter, or wherestaff should be is (only) behind the counter.


IS: Meaning Differences

On the Shetlands one speaks English.i.e., English is the (only) language that is spoken on theShetlands.(correct)One speaks English on the Shetlands. or English is spoken onthe Shetlands.i.e., Shetlands is the (only) place where English is spoken. (correct,but seems to give incomplete information)

Several people in this room know three languages.i.e., Everybody in this room knows at least two, possibly differentlanguages.Three languages are known by several people in this room.i.e., There are at least two languages such that everybody in thisroom knows at least these two languages.


2nd dimension in IS partitioning: Background-Focus

Was kauft das Madchen?Das Madchen kauft eine seidene Bluse.Es gibt eine Bluse aus Baumwolle und eine aus Seide.Was kauft das Madchen?Das Madchen kauft eine seidene Bluse.Es gibt eine seidene Bluse und eine seidene Jacke.Was kauft das Madchen?Das Madchen kauft eine seidene Bluse.

Partitioning of utterance meaning according to what is the samevs. what discriminates among similar entities



Was kauft das Madchen?Das Madchen kauft eine seidene Bluse.Es gibt eine Bluse aus Baumwolle und eine aus Seide.Was kauft das Madchen?Das Madchen kauft eine seidene Bluse.Es gibt eine seidene Bluse und eine seidene Jacke.Was kauft das Madchen?Das Madchen kauft eine seidene Bluse.Partitioning of utterance meaning according to what is the samevs. what discriminates among similar entities



Background-Focus partitioning reflects an abstract notion ofcontrast between alternatives available in the discourse context,against which the actual utterance is cast;B/F partitioning within Theme and/or Rheme reflects alternativeTheme(s) and/or Rheme(s) in the context.


IS: intonation

placement and type of accent and type of boundary tone

accent on FokusThema-Focus and Rhema-Focus different accent patterns

placement of boundaries: boundary between Theme andRheme

“Subjective ordering”: Rhema vor dem Thema (markiert) is alsopossible, typically combined with marking by other means (e.g.,intonation)Was kauft das Madchen?Eine Bluse kauft das Madchen.


IS realization: Syntax

Marked syntactic constructions: such as cleft, pseudo-cleft,passivization, there-insertion (again, in combination withintonation)What does John hate?John hates comics

Who hates comics?John hates comics.

Cleft: It is Rheme (that/who) ThemeWhat does John hate?It is comics John hates.Who hates comics? It is John who hates comics.

Pseudo-cleft: Who/What Theme is/are Rheme or subjective:Rheme is/are who/what ThemeWhat does John hate?What John hates are comics.


IS realization: Syntax

Passiv: gets Rheme-subject away from the beginning of thesentenceWho hates comics?Comics are hated by John.

There-construction:What is in the garden? There is a troll in the garden.


IS realization: Ellipsen

Theme can be left out if context is known (or possible to infer):A: What does John hate?B: Comics.

A: Who hates comics?B: John.

MP3:Was soll mit den Liedern gemacht werden?U: Mit den Liedern soll eine Playlist erstellt werden.U: Bitte suche Titel von Madonna.MP3: Einen Moment bitte. ... Von Madonna haben wir 1711Treffer.MP3: # 1711.

U: Wieviele Titel von Madonna gibt es?MP3: Einen Moment. ... 1711.


IS: Ellipsen

Map-Task-Corpus:G: where are you in relation to the top of the page just now?F: Uh, about four inches.G: Four inches?F: Yeah.G: Where are you from the left-hand side?F: About two.


Summary

IS-partitioning: Thema-Rhema, Background-Fokus

realization: intonation, word order, dif. syntactic constructions

IS plays an important role as interface between an utteranceand discourse

is important for correct NLP (i.e. dialogue systems).


Documents

Einf uhrung in die Pragmatik und Diskurs: Information ... uhrung in die Pragmatik und Diskurs: Information Structure V. Petukhova Universit at des Saarlandes Sommersemster 2016 basierend