On Information Structure, Meaning and Form

This collection of articles offers a new and compelling perspective on the interface connecting syntax, phonology, semantics and pragmatics. At the core of this volume is the hypothesis that information structure represents the common interface of these grammatical components. Information structure is investigated here from different theoretical viewpoints yielding typologically relevant information and structural generalizations. In the volume's introductory chapter, the editors identify two central approaches to information structure: the formal and the interpretive view. The remainder of the book is organized accordingly. The first part examines information structure and grammar, concentrating on generalizations across languages. The second part investigates information structure and pragmatics, concentrating on clause structure and context. Through concrete analyses of topic, focus, and related phenomena across different languages, the contributors add new and convincing evidence to the research on information structure.

Jenneke van der Wal, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Gramis Project, Tervuren, in Linguistische Berichte 222: 253-256:
On Information Structure, Meaning and Form is an attractive collection of papers which addresses the interfaces of information structure from both the formal perspective (prosody, morphosyntax) and the interpretive perspective (semantics, pragmatics). The book not only shows that information structure is essential in all disciplines of linguistics, but also demonstrates how information structure may be linked to the various areas of linguistic research and how this link can be formalised. In doing so, it fits in the recently increased interest in information structure and contributes to the ongoing discussions in the study of information structure itself and the way it interfaces with semantics, pragmatics, phonology and morphosyntax.