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  • Information Structure is independent of clausal grammar
  • A clause can have more than one unit of information
  • A unit of information can extend beyond a single clause
  • New information is moveable within a clause

"http://goanimate.com/videos/0ljhku7Fq0SQ?utm_source=linkshare"

  • Information Structure is not independent of clausal grammar
  • A clause can only have one unit of information
  • A unit of information equates to a single clause
  • New information is fixed within a clause

Yes. We hear the sounds when we read.

So we must use audible intonation units

for written Information structure

No. We process meaning directly without sound.

So we must use units not based on intonation

for written Information Structure

Well. We use both sound and the direct route.

So, Whatever!

BUT

These arguments presume a modular brain

What is Information Structure?

What Happens When We Apply This Approach to Other modes of Semiosis?

Aim: Maintain the function, identify the least arbitrary realisation

-

Realisation: Depends on

mode of semiosis

Function: Focus attention on most important part of information unit

Realisation: Intonation contour

Function: Divide stream of discourse into manageable units

Divided Into:

OPTIONAL

OBLIGATORY

//Teachers are

the lifeblood

of any university//

//Teachers are

the lifeblood/

of any university//

//Teachers/ are

the lifeblood

of any university//

Given

New

Christ of St. John of the Cross.

Salvador Dali

© Glasgow City Council

Realisation: Tonic foot

Realisation: 0

Function: None - residue - what is not New

Function: Focus attention on most important part of information unit

The Last Supper. Leonardo da Vinci

In Architecture?

In Music?

We combine visual potentials with embodied, social and cultural potentials

We combine aural potentials with embodied, social and cultural potentials

Realisation: Aural, embodied,

social and cultural focal points

Realisation: Visual, embodied,

social and cultural focal points

Function: Focus attention on most important part of information unit

Link: Non-arbitrary relationship between function and realisation

ISFC 39

Going Beyond Speech To Seek Out New Information In Writing & Other Modalities

Why is There a Difference Between Spoken and Written Information Structure?

Scriptura Continua

Historical

Psychological

Do we hear what we read?

How does Information

Structure Work in

Written English?

Scriptura Continua

Punctuation & Spaces

Silent Reading

If so, written Information Structure will be the same as spoken, because we can "hear" it in our head

If not, written English needs a new way to realise Information Structure

Why is Scriptura Continua important?

  • Without spaces, it was almost impossible to sight-read
  • Reading was quite slow
  • Compared to modern text, it was "inefficient"

Because this text does not allow the eye to saccade to the next best resting point since all text is indistinguishable.

Reading scriptura continua is the same as speaking and so information structure functions in the same way

Why is Punctuation important?

  • Punctuation, or "pointing", started as a guide for the oral production of ungapped text
  • Punctuation developed with printing to enable better silent reading
  • Punctuation still fulfills the role for the two modes: reproduction of spoken word & silent reading

Punctuation allows saccades - the practiced eye can identify punctuation marks and rest on the items preceding the punctuation marks.

Punctuation allows for variability in the spoken expression of intonation

Punctuation identifies units of information for written English

What do the

experts say?

Why is Spaced Text important?

  • Spaces allowed faster reading
  • Spaces allowed far easier silent reading
  • Reading became less of a specialist skills

Spaces allow saccades - the practiced eye can identify where to jump over (grammar, predictable items) and where to rest (content and important items).

Spaces between words, combined with punctuation marks, remove written English from the constraints of spoken English

Spaces and punctuation are constrained by the potentials of the visual system not the respiratory system

Gerald

Edelman

Barsalou, L.W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, p.11.1-11.29

D’Ausilio, A. et al. (2009). The motor somatotopy of speech perception. Current Biology, 19(5), pp.381-385

Edelman, G.M. (2004). Wider Than the Sky - The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press

Fries, P.H. (2000). Issues in modelling the textual metafunction. In M. Scott and G. Thompson (eds.), Patterns of Text: In honour of

Michael Hoey (pp.83-107). Amsterdam: John Benjamins

Fries, P.H. (2002). The flow of information in a written text. In P. Fries, M. Cummings, D. Lockwood, and W. Spruiell (eds.),

Relations and Functions Within and Around Language (pp.117-155). London: Continuum

Halliday, M.A.K. (1967). Notes on transitivity and theme part 2. Journal of Linguistics, 3(2), pp.199-244

Halliday, M.A.K. (1989). Spoken and Written Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Halliday, M.A.K. and Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (1999). Construing Experience Through Meaning: A Language-Based Approach to

Cognition. London: Continuum

Halliday, M.A.K. and Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar – Third Edition. London: Arnold

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading Images - The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge

Martin, J.R. (1992). English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins

Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (1992). Interpreting the textual metafunction. In M. Davies and L. Ravelli (eds.), Advances in Systemic

Linguistics: Recent Theory and Practice (pp.37-81). London: Pinter

Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (1995). Lexicogrammatical Cartography: English Systems. Tokyo: International Language Science Publishers

Maturana, H.R. and Varela, F.J. (1987) The Tree of Knowledge. Boston: Shambhala

O’Toole, M. (1994). The Language of Displayed Art. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses

O’Halloran, K. (2008). Systemic functional-multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA): Constructing ideational meaning using

language and visual imagery, Visual Communication 7 pp.443-475

Parkes, M.B. (1992). Pause and Effect - An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West. Aldershot: Scolar Press

Saenger, P. (1982). Silent reading: Its impact on late medieval script and society. Viator, 13, pp.367-414

Saenger, P. (1997). Space Between Words. Stanford: Stanford University Press

Select References

"INDEFENSIBLE!"

New

Given

Cognitive

Do we hear what we read?

Realisation: Final position

in a clause

Function: Focus attention on most important part of information unit

If so, written Information Structure will be the same as spoken, because we can "hear" it in our head

If not, written English needs a new way to realise Information Structure

  • T-unit
  • New
  • Point
  • Culmination

Embodied/Grounded Cognition

  • There is little or no difference in the brain between hearing and speaking, reading and writing
  • When you speak, my brain speaks your words for me
  • All brain pathways are activated up to the point of motor articulation

To Sum Up:

The lifeblood of

any university

is its teachers

The teachers are

the lifeblood of

any university

For any

university the

teachers are

its lifeblood

  • Written text uses punctuation to create information units
  • Spaces between words enable efficient silent reading
  • Silent reading disengages language from the physical constraints of speech
  • We can still 'hear' written text through our embodied experience of language
  • We can re-enact the physical read-aloud version of written text when required

It is the teachers

that are the

lifeblood of

any university

Function: Focus attention on most important part of information unit

Realisation: Most visibly salient unit prior to end of information unit; lexical item prior to punctuation mark or end of clause (presumed/expected punctuation mark)

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