Information Distribution In English Clauses—from Prosodic, Grammatical And Pragmatic Perspectives

One of the major functions of language is communication. Being achieved by means of exchanging information, communication can be seen as a process in which the addresser sends a message to the addressee. This process is realized in the form of clause, most crucial form for information exchange. However, the importance of the information conveyed by clauses are varying. The part of information which the addresser wants to highlight in a clause is called the information focus. In most cases, the addresser would choose the part of the clause that expresses the given information as the point of departure of the information, and the remainder of the clause is the new information. The information focus is usually conveyed in the new information, serving as the most important element of the new information. Sometimes, however, to achieve a special effect, the new information can be chosen as the starting point.The paper investigates information distribution in English clauses, which are mainly in simple sentence form. Simultaneously, some information focusing devices will be analyzed. The introduction of the paper discusses the significance of the study of information distribution in English clauses. Chapter One is a literature review of the studies and conclusions on information distribution conducted by some mainstream theoretical schools and linguists. Besides, some basic concepts are introduced in this chapter. Chapter Two, Chapter Three and Chapter Four form the body of the paper, in which the information distribution in English clauses is analyzed by a wealth of examples. Chapter Two is a prosodic analysis of the distribution of information focus in English clauses and its corresponding functions. Chapter Three is a grammatical analysis of the distribution of information focus within an English clause. It should be pointed out that information could be highlighted by movement devices and syntactic devices. Movement devices consist of fronting, inversion, and postponement, and syntactic devices include cleft structure, pseudo-cleft structure and there-be structure. Chapter Four is a pragmatic analysis of the distribution of information focus within an English clause. It attempts to study the relation between information distribution, pragmatic presupposition and deixis. The conclusion makes a summary of the paper.The principal value of this thesis lies in the following aspects:To begin with, the thesis aims to help the addresser effectively pass his own communicative purposes to the addressee.Then, it purports to help the addressee correctly interpret the communicative intent of the addresser.Besides, the thesis may help translators improve their translating ability.Hopefully, the thesis may provide English learners and teachers with useful suggestions or even guidance.