Overview of Information Structure

Information structure is a fundamental aspect of language that connects sentence contents to the wider discourse environment. It encompasses the relationships between new and old information, the identification of topics, and the expression of focus. While investigating information structure, it is crucial to consider context and how ideas connect within it. There are two primary categories within information structure: topic and focus. Topic refers to a referent already introduced or available in the discourse, while focus provides new or at-issue content about that topic. Various languages employ different strategies for marking topic and focus, including prosody, word order, and morphological marking. Some languages even repurpose existing elements or use pragmatics to hint at information structure.