Abstract

This paper is concerned with how information structure should be optimally integrated into grammar. It proposes an analysis with the following characteristics: (1) information structure is an integral part of grammar since it interacts in principled ways with both syntax and phonology, (2) the representation of information structure in the grammar is independent of its particular structural realisation in different languages, and (3) there is a direct analogous implementation of the relationship between information structure and prosody in English-type languages and between information structure and the word-order dimension in Catalan-type languages. The framework utilised is HPSG. HPSG's multidimensional constraint-based architecture lends itself very well to expressing the mutual constraints on interpretation, syntax, and phonology that so diversely characterise focus-ground in different languages. The study of information structure, we argue, is essential in addressing fundamental questions regarding grammar architecture. Our point of departure is the assumption, expressed in e.g. Chafe 1976, Prince 1986, that what underlies the focus-ground distinction is a need to `package' the information conveyed by a sentence so that hearers can easily identify which part of the sentence represents an actual contribution to their information state at the time of utterance, and which part represents material that is already subsumed by this information state. In particular, we adopt the proposal in Vallduví 1992, 1994 that these `ways of packaging' can be viewed as updating instructions or, equivalently, as types of transitions between information states. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a brief overview of information packaging. Section 3 discusses the st...

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