Information Structure, Discourse Structure and Grammatical Structure

Abstract

This volume is a collection of papers dealing with the close connection between discourse and grammar, illustrating the many, sometimes conflicting, facets of that relationship in various European languages. Central to all contributions is their focus on diverse aspects of clause combination and on the various parameters, such as information structure, that have a special tie with clause combination. Most of the papers are centred around subordination as a grammatical structure and its status in a discourse. With a few notable exceptions, subordination has been thought of as part of the discursive background. This volume adduces convincing evidence from the field of deictic/anaphoric items, information structure and rhetorical structure in favour of a more nuanced approach to the status of subordination in discourse. It also illustrates how rhetorical patterns in discourse give rise, through a grammaticalisation process, to new interclausal dependencies.