Einführung in die Pragmatik und Diskurs: Information Structure

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1 Einführung in die Pragmatik und Diskurs: Information Structure V. Petukhova Universität des Saarlandes Sommersemster 2016 basierend auf Folien von A. Hornbach und I. Kruijff-Korbayova

2 Information Structure Plan für heute Motivation Thema und Rhema Fragetest für IS Fokus und Background IS - Realisierungen Kernlektüre: Steedmann 2000 & Kruijff-Korbayova et al (siehe Kurshomepage)

3 Motivation (1) Ein Schild in der Londoner U-Bahn: Dogs must be carried. Hunde müssen getragen werden. Man muss einen Hund tragen. Interpretation: Wenn man einen Hund hat, muss man ihn tragen.

4 Motivation (2) Schild in einer Synagoge: Hats must be worn. Man muss einen Hut tragen. Es müssen Hüte getragen werden. Hüte müssen getragen werden. Interpretation: Was man hier tun muss, ist einen Hut tragen.

5 Motivation (3) Dogs must be carried. Hunde mussen getragen werden. (4) # Dogs must be carried. # Hunde müssen getragen werden. (5) Hüte müssen getragen werden. (6) # Hüte müssen getragen werden. (Großbuchstaben bezeichnen den Hauptakzent im Satz.)

6 Motivation Beispiel aus einem Dialogsystem (7) U: What is the status of the stove? S: The stove is switched on.

7 Observations Intonation, word order, syntactic structure and other aspects of linguistic form are tightly related Variation in these aspects of linguistic form is not arbitrary! These aspects of linguistic form reflect the relation of the utterance to the context Whether an utterance is appropriate or inappropriate in a given context depends not only on what is said but also how Recall: Grice s Maxim of Manner

8 Information Strusture: Thema & Rhema Speakers organize their utterances in a way that reflects their model of the context and their communicative intentions (the intended context change) Utterances both reflect and affect the context. Intuitively, IS is a mean a speaker employs to present some parts of the meaning as context-dependent, and others as context-affecting. Thus, IS concerns a division (partitioning) of an utterance meaning: Theme the part which relates it to the purpose of the discourse and anchors the content to the context (i.e., what speaker and hearer are attending to); what the utterance is about, the topic that the speaker means to address; may also restrict the context to aprticular type(s) of situation(s) Rheme the part which advances the discourse, i.e., adds or modifies some information (i.e., the informative part); what the speaker says about the Theme, i.e., the Rheme is semantically predicated over the Theme IS is an inherent aspect of meaning it is an important factor

9 Information Structure Partitioning Two dimensions of utterance meaning partitioning: Theme-Rheme partitioning Background-Focus partitioning

10 IS Partitioning: Theme-Rheme Theme-Rheme partitioning Partitioning of utterance meaning into what speaker means to address vs. what she wants to say about it. This reflects an aboutness relation, i.e., the Rheme is semantically predicated over the Theme Background-Focus partitioning within Theme and/or Rheme reflects an abstract notion of contrast between alternatives available in the discourse context, against which the actual utterance (its Theme and its Rheme) is cast

11 Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele Dogs must be carried. [Hunde](Theme) [müssen getragen werden.](rheme) Hats must be worn. Hüte müssen getragen werden.

12 Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele (8) U: What is the status of the stove? S: The stove is switched on.

13 Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele Das Mädchen [Theme] kauft eine Bluse. [Rheme]

14 Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele Das Mädchen [Theme] kauft eine Bluse. [Rheme] Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse.

15 Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele Das Mädchen [Theme] kauft eine Bluse. [Rheme] Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse

16 Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele Das Mädchen [Theme] kauft eine Bluse. [Rheme] Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse.

17 Question test for IS Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test the context in which a particular IS is appropriate: the question determines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer fills the Rheme.

18 Question test for IS Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test the context in which a particular IS is appropriate: the question determines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer fills the Rheme. Examples:

19 Question test for IS Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test the context in which a particular IS is appropriate: the question determines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer fills the Rheme. Examples: Was macht das Mädchen?

20 Question test for IS Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test the context in which a particular IS is appropriate: the question determines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer fills the Rheme. Examples: Was macht das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse.

21 Question test for IS Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test the context in which a particular IS is appropriate: the question determines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer fills the Rheme. Examples: Was macht das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Wer kauft eine Bluse?

22 Question test for IS Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test the context in which a particular IS is appropriate: the question determines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer fills the Rheme. Examples: Was macht das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Wer kauft eine Bluse? Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse.

23 Question test for IS Question-answer pairs are commonly used to indicate or test the context in which a particular IS is appropriate: the question determines the Theme; what is asked for is the Rheme; the answer fills the Rheme. Examples: Was macht das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Wer kauft eine Bluse? Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Swapping the questions in the two examples results in incoherent Q-A pairs: the answers become infelicitous, because the IS partitioning then does not match the context set by the question.

24 Theme-Rheme Partitioning: Beispiele Ask the appropriate question: Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse. Das Mädchen kauft eine Bluse.

25 Question test IS The linguistic form of an utterance may be compatible with several different IS partitionings (as reflected by different questions) An utterance can have a range of possible IS partitionings of an utterance: 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?

26 IS Interpretation Steedman defines the semantics of IS in terms of selecting one member from a presupposed set of alternatives: Theme presupposes a Rheme -alternative set, i.e., a set of alternative propositions that could possibly answer the corresponding question in the given context; Rheme than restricts the Rheme -alternative set to a singleton. Theme also presupposes a Theme -alternative set, i.e. a set of alternative questions; Focus within Theme then restricts the Theme -alternative set to a singleton These are pragmatic presuppositions that the relevant alternative set is available in the context. Systematic recognition of alternative sets is an open research question

27 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 different degrees, 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 Slawic languages, 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.

28 IS: Meaning Differences Smoke outside i.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 where staff should be is (only) behind the counter.

29 IS: Meaning Differences On the Shetlands one speaks English. i.e., English is the (only) language that is spoken on the Shetlands.(correct) One speaks English on the Shetlands. or English is spoken on the 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 different languages. Three languages are known by several people in this room. i.e., There are at least two languages such that everybody in this room knows at least these two languages.

30 2nd dimension in IS partitioning: Background-Focus Was kauft das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine seidene Bluse. Es gibt eine Bluse aus Baumwolle und eine aus Seide. Was kauft das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine seidene Bluse. Es gibt eine seidene Bluse und eine seidene Jacke. Was kauft das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine seidene Bluse.

31 2nd dimension in IS partitioning: Background-Focus Was kauft das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine seidene Bluse. Es gibt eine Bluse aus Baumwolle und eine aus Seide. Was kauft das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine seidene Bluse. Es gibt eine seidene Bluse und eine seidene Jacke. Was kauft das Mädchen? Das Mädchen kauft eine seidene Bluse. Partitioning of utterance meaning according to what is the same vs. what discriminates among similar entities

32 2nd dimension in IS partitioning: Background-Focus Background-Focus partitioning reflects an abstract notion of contrast between alternatives available in the discourse context, against which the actual utterance is cast; B/F partitioning within Theme and/or Rheme reflects alternative Theme(s) and/or Rheme(s) in the context.

33 IS: intonation placement and type of accent and type of boundary tone accent on Fokus Thema-Focus and Rhema-Focus different accent patterns placement of boundaries: boundary between Theme and Rheme Subjective ordering : Rhema vor dem Thema (markiert) is also possible, typically combined with marking by other means (e.g., intonation) Was kauft das Mädchen? Eine Bluse kauft das Mädchen.

34 IS realization: Syntax Marked syntactic constructions: such as cleft, pseudo-cleft, passivization, there-insertion (again, in combination with intonation) What does John hate? John hates comics Who hates comics? John hates comics. Cleft: It is Rheme (that/who) Theme What 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 Theme What does John hate? What John hates are comics.

35 IS realization: Syntax Passiv: gets Rheme-subject away from the beginning of the sentence Who hates comics? Comics are hated by John. There-construction: What is in the garden? There is a troll in the garden.

36 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 1711 Treffer. MP3: # U: Wieviele Titel von Madonna gibt es? MP3: Einen Moment

37 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.

38 Summary IS-partitioning: Thema-Rhema, Background-Fokus realization: intonation, word order, dif. syntactic constructions IS plays an important role as interface between an utterance and discourse is important for correct NLP (i.e. dialogue systems).