Information package¶

The grammar of the clause makes available a number of constructions that enable us to express a given core meaning in different ways, depending on how we wish to to present or ”package” the information.

Kim broke the vase

The vase was broken by Kim

The vase Kim broke

It was Kim who broke the vase

What Kim broke was the vase

All have the same core meaning, in the sense that there is no situation or context in which one of them would be true and another false.

The first is the syntactically most basic, while the others belong to various information-packaging constructions.

Goal¶

Theme: Starting slot Rheme: Everything else Focus: The placement of new information

To ensure the Theme (the start) leads naturally to the Focus.

The Principle of End-Focus (The End)¶

While the Theme (at the start) anchors the reader, the Rheme (everything else) usually contains the new Information.

English has a natural “gravity” that pulls new, complex, or important information toward the end of the clause.
Principle of End-Weight: We prefer to put “heavy” (long, complex) phrases at the end so the sentence doesn’t feel top-heavy.
End-Focus: We usually place the most important or “news-breaking” part of the message at the very end to give it rhetorical impact.
English prefers to start with the Subject/Theme/Topic (the “Anchor”) but ends with the most important information (the “Focus”).
When you write, you aren’t just choosing words; you are deciding what to use as the hook at the start and what to save for the punchline at the end.

The “English Conflict”¶

The tension in English writing comes from deciding which information is given (Theme) and which is new* (End-Focus).

Object be the Theme/Subject¶

Use passive voice

The committee (T/S) rejected the idea (default)

The idea (T/S) was rejected by the committee (use this if the paragraph is about the idea, not the committee).

Force end-focus of something specific¶

Cleft sentence

It is the logic that I find flawed. (“logic” moved to a position of high focus near the end).

Give → New¶

The “Given-Before-New” Preference: English speakers prefer to start with something the reader already knows (The Theme/Topic) and end with the new “point” they are making.

Start with the familiar: Align your Subject, Theme, and Topic to tell the reader “This is where we are standing.”
End with the impact: Use the end of the sentence to deliver the specific point or “precise meaning” you are trying to convey.
The Theme/Topic sits at the beginning because it is the “given” information. The Focus (the new information) sits at the end.
```
  Topic [Theme/Given] → Predicative [Focus/New]
```

The author’s conclusion [Topic] is absurd [Focus].

The “Aha!”: “that it’s absurd”

The Shift: Topic at the end¶

Topic to the end when the topic itself is the “news,” or when it is too “heavy” (long and complex) to put at the front

Predicative fronting:

Predicative [Theme] → Topic [Focus]

Absurd [Theme] is the author’s conclusion [Focus].

The “Aha!”: what being judged

End-weight and balance¶

English also has a structural preference for End-Weight. If you have a very long, complex phrase, English “wants” it at the end.

That the argument was based on a flawed understanding of 18th-century logic was clear. (Unbalanced, the Subject/Theme is too “heavy”).

It was clear that the argument was based on a flawed understanding of 18th-century logic. (balanced, the heavy information is moved to the end-focus position).

Directness: As you refine your English voice, you’ll find that “Directness” often comes from keeping the Anchor (the start) lean and simple, so the Punchline (the end) carries all the power.

The “Hammer Blow”: Delayed Focus¶

CGEL formal¶

#	Construction	a. Marked Form	b. Unmarked / Basic Form
i	Preposing	This one you can keep.	You can keep this one.
ii	Postposing	I’ve lent to Jill the only copy that has been corrected.	I’ve lent the only copy that has been corrected to Jill.
iii	Inversion	In the bag was a gold watch.	A gold watch was in the bag.
iv	Passive	The car was driven by Sue.	Sue drove the car.
v	Existential	There was a doctor on board.	A doctor was on board.
vi	Extraposition	It’s clear that she is ill.	That she is ill is clear.
vii	Cleft	It was Kim that suggested it.	Kim suggested it.
viii	Pseudo-cleft	What I need is a cold drink.	I need a cold drink.
ix	Dislocation	It’s excellent, this curry.	This curry is excellent.

In the first three we are concerned simply with the order of elements, while the others involve more radical changes.
The basic position for the Complement this one in [i] is after the verb, but in [a] it is preposed, placed at the front of the clause.
In [ii] the basic position for the Object, the only copy that has been corrected, is just after the verb but long or complex elements like this can be postposed, placed at the end.
In [iii] the positions of the Subject and Complement of the basic version [b] are reversed in the inversion construction [a]. (More precisely, this is Subject-Dependent inversion, in contrast to the Subject-auxiliary inversion construction discussed earlier. The Dependent is usually a Complement but can also be an Adjunct, as in Three days later came news of her death.)
In [iv] (the only one where the basic version has a distinct name, `active’) the Object becomes Subject, the Subject becomes Complement of by and the auxiliary be is added.
The existential construction applies mainly with the verb be: the basic Subject is displaced to follow the verb and the semantically empty pronoun there takes over the Subject function.
In [vib] the Subject is a subordinate clause (that she is ill); in [a] this is extraposed, placed after the verb phrase and this time the Subject function is taken over by the pronoun it.
In [vii] the cleft clause is formed by dividing the basic version into two parts: one (Kim) is highlighted by making it Complement of a clause with it as Subject and be as verb, while the other is backgrounded by relegating it to a subordinate clause (a distinct subtype of relative clause).
The pseudo-cleft construction is similar, but this time the subordinated part is put in a fused relative (what I need) functioning as Subject of be.
Dislocation belongs to fairly informal style. It differs from the basic version in having an extra noun phrase, set apart intonationally and related to a pronoun in the main Subject-Predicate part of the clause. In the left dislocation variant the pronoun occurs to the left of the noun phrase; in right dislocation it is the other way round, as in His father, she can’t stand him.

Package by it’s focus effect¶

#	Construction	Example	Focus / Information Packaging Effect
i	Preposing	This one you can keep.	Highlights fronted constituent as topical / given-point of departure (what we start from; discourse anchor)
ii	Postposing	I’ve lent to Jill the only copy that has been corrected.	Pushes heavy/complex NP to end-focus, keeping recipient in early (less focal) position
iii	Inversion	In the bag was a gold watch.	Places locative/scene-setting element as theme, and puts new entity in end-focus
iv	Passive	The car was driven by Sue.	Promotes patient as topic/theme, demotes agent; focus often on event/result or patient
v	Existential	There was a doctor on board.	Introduces new entity as focus of existence/presence (the NP after there be is rheme/focus)
vi	Extraposition	It’s clear that she is ill.	Puts clausal content late as focal/rhematic material, with anticipatory subject as thematic placeholder
vii	Cleft	It was Kim that suggested it.	Identificational focus on “Kim” (exclusive/contrastive focus on the clefted constituent)
viii	Pseudo-cleft	What I need is a cold drink.	Focus falls on complement (“a cold drink”) as the value satisfying a variable
ix	Dislocation	It’s excellent, this curry.	Right-dislocated NP is afterthought / topic clarification, while predicate carries evaluative focus

Canonical counterpart¶

Basic counterpart need not be canonical. For convenience we have chosen examples in [64] where the basic counterparts are all canonical clauses, but of course they do not need to be.

The basic (active) counterpart of passive:

Was the car driven by Kim?

is:

Did Kim drive the car?,

Which is non-canonical by virtue of being interrogative.

Likewise the non-cleft counterpart of:

It was Sue who had been interviewed by the police

is:

Sue had been interviewed by the police,

Which is non-canonical by virtue of being passive: note then that certain combinations of the information-packaging constructions are possible.

Construction¶

The information-packaging construction may be the only option.

The second point is that under certain circumstances what one would expect to be the basic counterpart is in fact ungrammatical.

Thus we can say:

There was an accident

but not:

~~ An accident was~~

Here the existential construction is the only option.

One difference between actives and passives is that the by phrase of the passive is an optional element whereas the element that corresponds to it in the active, namely the Subject, is generally obligatory in finite clauses. Compare, then:

Some mistakes were made by Ed (by phrase, long)

Some mistakes were made (short)

Ed made some mistakes (active)

Short passives have no active counterpart. They are in fact the more common type of passive, allowing information to be omitted that would have to be expressed in the active construction.