New / Given Information
Is this information new or already in the conversation?
Ý nghĩa
Whether a piece of information is being introduced, repeated, contrasted, assumed, resumed, or made prominent.
Cách nhận biết
Ask whether the listener already has this information in the mental scene.
Ví dụ
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
Góc nhìn theo ngôn ngữ
Trong ngôn ngữ mẹ đẻ của Bạn
New/given information is managed by topic-fronting, demonstratives, đã/rồi, bị/được and ellipsis.
Cuốn sách đó tôi đọc rồi.
classifier book that I read already
Trong ngôn ngữ Bạn đang học
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.