Michael Halliday Quote

Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. (...) this is not determined (...) by constituent structure. Rather could it be said that the distribution of information specifies a distinct structure on a different plan. (...) Information structure is realized phonologically by 'tonality', the distribution of the text into tone groups.


p. 200 cited in: Klaus von Heusinger "Information Structure and the Partition of Sentence Meaning". In: Eva Hajičová (2002) Form, Meaning and Function. p. 287. - Notes on transitivity and theme in English: Part 2, 1967


Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. (...) this is not determined (...) by constituent structure....

Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. (...) this is not determined (...) by constituent structure....

Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. (...) this is not determined (...) by constituent structure....

Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. (...) this is not determined (...) by constituent structure....