Information Flow

Information Flow English Language Unit 4

…remember this… A passive voice is when the OBJECT of the sentence is in SUBJECT position. A passive voice is formed with an auxiliary verb -to be or to get “Brutus stabbed Caesar” “Caesar was stabbed by Brutus”

…consider this… It is often the case that the OBJECT will be in SUBJECT position and the SUBJECT will not be present at all!! “The mixture was heated to 300 degrees” What is the subject?? “The door was closed” What (who) is the subject?

…nominalisation… Nominalisation is a feature of formal written texts particularly in bureaucratic language. When verbs are turned into nouns, actions become things and the content seems much more abstract. “Ignorance was shown in response to the inquiry on the whereabouts of the Welfare Housing Policy” Think of conversion – if a noun phrase has been re-worded and converted into a verb phrase

…given before new… GIVEN information is information that is already familiar to the reader – it can refer to something that ahs appeared earlier in the text, or it can be assumes as common knowledge NEW information is what drives the discourse forward – its where writers expect their audiences to pay special attention

GIVEN information comes before NEW Since the NEW information is the more important, this basic organisation means that we want important information at the end of the sentence. The beginning of a sentence is reserved for old and unsurprising material (GIVEN information) – information that has lower communicative value.

What’s the most important information in the following sentence? “There was a large jar of Fleetwood’s High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip onto your broom for long journeys, and a Handbook of Do-it-Yourself Broomcare”

…there-construction… The there acts as a dummy subject pronoun in order to allow the new and exciting information to appear later. “There was a large jar of Fleetwood’s High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip onto your broom for long journeys, and a Handbook of Do-it-Yourself Broomcare”

…anaphoric reference… Pronouns or expressions that refer back to something that has already been mentioned “And then there were these Azkaban guards everyone kept talking about. They seemed to scare most people senseless.”

OLD vs NEW Information that is new, interesting or out of the ordinary is typically a lot longer than old, routine or unremarkable information. Given information doesn’t need to be included in as great a detail.

OLD vs NEW Information that is new, interesting or out of the ordinary is typically a lot longer than old, routine or unremarkable information. Given information doesn’t need to be included in as great a detail. (pronouns)

OLD vs NEW Information that is new, interesting or out of the ordinary is typically a lot longer than old, routine or unremarkable information. Given information doesn’t need to be included in as great a detail. (pronouns) Another way of giving Given information less prominence is by totally omitting it.

OLD vs NEW Information that is new, interesting or out of the ordinary is typically a lot longer than old, routine or unremarkable information. Given information doesn’t need to be included in as great a detail. (pronouns) Another way of giving Given information less prominence is by totally omitting it. (ellipsis)

OLD vs NEW Information that is new, interesting or out of the ordinary is typically a lot longer than old, routine or unremarkable information. Given information doesn’t need to be included in as great a detail. (pronouns) Another way of giving Given information less prominence is by totally omitting it. (ellipsis) Another way of giving Given information less prominence is by substituting a word or words with another.

OLD vs NEW Information that is new, interesting or out of the ordinary is typically a lot longer than old, routine or unremarkable information. Given information doesn’t need to be included in as great a detail. (pronouns) Another way of giving Given information less prominence is by totally omitting it. (ellipsis) Another way of giving Given information less prominence is by substituting a word or words with another. (substitution)

…ellipsis… “Have you read Harry Potter?” “No, I haven’t” “No, I haven’t read it” “No, I haven’t read Harry Potter” Ellipsis leads to economy of expression - being efficient.

…subsititution… “I don’t have a pen. Do you have one?”

Front-focus vs End-focus The ends of sentences are important for communication – they contain what is of special significance. However, beginnings of sentences can be positions of special focus. By bringing important information forward, it is given greater prominence – it gains the audience’s attention.

Cohesion and Coherence As writing is a solitary act, cohesive ties and connections are a much bigger deal than with speech. Writing is also deprived of situational context so vagueness and ambiguity can present more of a problem. Space and time expressions (by then, sometimes, nowadays) and connectors (first, however) can be used to indicate links between sentences.

Cohesion and Coherence As writing is a solitary act, cohesive ties and connections are a much bigger deal than with speech. Writing is also deprived of situational context so vagueness and ambiguity can present more of a problem. Space and time expressions (by then, sometimes, nowadays) and connectors (first, however) can be used to indicate links between sentences. (e.g. on page 201)

…inference… Readers can supply all kinds of additional information to supply any missing links Australia Day Activity on page 212

Information Flow