Information flow

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In discourse-based grammatical theory, information flow is any tracking of referential information by speakers. Information may be new, i.e., just introduced into the conversation; given, i.e., already active in the speakers' consciousness; or old, i.e., no longer active. [1] The various types of activation, and how these are defined, are model-dependent.

Information flow affects grammatical structures such as:

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References

  1. Chafe, Wallace (1976). "Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view". In Li, Charles (ed.). Subject and topic. Academic Press. pp. 25–55.