New / Given Information
Is this information new or already in the conversation?
Betekenis
Whether a piece of information is being introduced, repeated, contrasted, assumed, resumed, or made prominent.
Zo herken je het
Ask whether the listener already has this information in the mental scene.
Voorbeelden
new|known|already mentioned|same one
a man... the man|this idea|that problem
A woman entered the room. The woman smiled.
Visual guide
Conversation state: 1 NEW A woman entered. -> add woman #1 2 GIVEN The woman smiled. -> reuse woman #1 Listener already has it.
One referent, many statuses: NEW: a woman GIVEN: the woman RESUMED: she / Ø CONTRAST: that woman Languages mark this by: article, order, stress, particle, pronoun, omission
Taaloverzicht
In je moedertaal
New information often appears with een and existential er; given information returns as pronouns or definite NPs.
Er staat een man voor de deur. Hij wacht.
There stands a man before the door. He waits.
In de taal die je leert
English tracks new and given information with articles, pronouns, stress, word order, and discourse structure.
A man entered. The man sat down.
a man/the man = new/given status
Learners may repeat nouns too much or use pronouns/articles before the listener can identify the referent.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.