Finegan 8 Read & Retell

Finegan 8 handled the topics of information structure and pragmatics. Of all the chapters we have read this semester, I would have to say this chapter interested me least. I would venture to guess that my interest level was somewhat dependent on the abstract nature of some of the concepts. The chapter was filled with many terms, some of which were familiar and some of which I had difficulty wrapping my head around. I actually felt somewhat enlightened at the end of the chapter with the summary statement--"Syntax is thus used to convey two kinds of imformation: semantic information and pragramatic information."

Information structure is highlighting and deemphasizing certain information in a language text. Discourse context plays a role in how this occurs. The study of information structure is pragmatics. Various topics that seemed somewhat easier to grasp were given vs. new information, contrast, topics, definite vs. indefinite information, passive vs. active, etc. It was interesting to read how different languages deal with these concepts in different ways...word order, pitch, etc. The concepts that I found a bit abstract were fronting, left dislocation and clefts. The example sentences were helpful, but I don't think I could take a sentence and dissect using these terms.

One item I especially enjoyed learning about was use of passive and active voice in sentence construction. I tend to attempt to use active voice because it was so drilled into me during writing classes. I appreciated reading about proper use of passive voice to help flow and understanding. I had never thought of it in that way.