Givenness

{{Short description|Quality of information that is assumed to be known to the listener}} {{technical|date=February 2019}}In linguistics, '''givenness''' is the degree to which a speaker assumes certain contextual information of a topic of discourse is already known to the listener. The speaker thus considers it unnecessary to provide further contextual information through an expression's linguistic properties (e.g. its syntactic form or position, or its patterns of stress and intonation).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure|last=Rochemont|first=Michael|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780199642670|editor-last=Féry|editor-first=Caroline|location=Oxford|pages=41–63|chapter=Givenness}}</ref> A given contextual information in a discourse is assumed to be known by the addressee in the moment of utterance, therefore a given expression must be known from prior discourse.<ref name=":1">Kratzer, Angelica & Selkirk, Elizabeth (2018). Deconstructing Information Structure. Manuscript, University of Massachusetts, at Amherst and University College London (UCL). https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004201</ref>

Givenness is marked by the absence of emphasis or detailed explanations. For example, when informing a close friend of having taken a long-considered action, one might simply say "I did it!" The givenness of the action which "it" refers to results from previously discussing the action. In that utterance, the stress would not fall on "it," but on "did." This example may be contrasted when the nature of the action is new information, such as "I did a cartwheel!" In this case, the object of ''did''— the noun ''cartwheel''— will receive the emphasis.

== Definitions ==

In literature, Prince (1981) distinguishes between three different kinds of Givenness:<ref>{{Cite book|title=Radical Pragmatics|last=Prince|first=Ellen|publisher=Academic Press|year=1981|isbn=0121796604|editor-last=Cole|editor-first=Peter|location=New York|pages=91–136|chapter=Toward a taxonomy of given-new information}}</ref>

# "The speaker assumes the hearer can predict or could have predicted a particular linguistic item will or would occur in a particular position within a sentence. # "The speaker assumes the hearer has or could appropriately have some particular thing/entity/... in his/her CONSCIOUSNESS at the time of hearing the utterance. # "The speaker assumes the hearer "knows," assumes, or can infer in a particular thing (but is not necessarily thinking about it)."

Definition by Krifka (2008):<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Krifka|first=Manfred|date=2008|title=Basic Notions of Information Structure|journal=Acta Linguistica Hungarica |volume=55|issue=3–4|pages=243–276|doi=10.1556/ALing.55.2008.3-4.2|url=http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/files/10025/SFB632_Basic_Notions_of_Information_Structure.pdf}}</ref><blockquote>A feature X of an expression α is a Givenness feature if X indicates whether the denotation of α is present in the CG [(Common Ground)] (see below) or not, and/or indicates the degree to which it is present in the immediate CG.</blockquote> This definition allows two different interpretations of givenness: givenness may be either a categorical feature (given vs. not given), or a scale that expresses the degree of discourse salience.

Definition by Kratzer and Selkirk (2018):<ref name=":1" />

<blockquote>''An expression α is Given in a context C if there is a discourse referent (individual, property, proposition) in C that entails <nowiki>α</nowiki> O, C.'' </blockquote>

== Entailment == ''Entailment'' describes the relation between expression ''α'' and expression ''β'' when one of the following conditions applies:<ref name=":1" />

Co-reference is one of the two semantic relations that express Givenness.<ref name=":0" /> Formally, references α and β both refer to the same entity (the referent): α,β ∈ De, α = β.<ref name=":1" /> A pronoun ''(α)'' usually identifies a noun phrase that has been mentioned ''(β)'' in a prior context and (''α''). Examples of:<ref name=":1" />

#On my way home, ''a dog'' barked at me. I was really frightened by [the fierce German shepherd]Given. #Did you see ''Dr. Cramer'' to get your root canal? - Don't remind me. I'd like to strangle [the butcher]Given. #''My neighbor'' is a funny character. Still, I really like [John]Given. <ref name=":0" />

Alternatively, for non-referential α and β (e.g. predicates, quantifiers), α is given if the meaning of α and β are extensionally identical or ''α'' is a hypernym of ''β.'' Formally, α,β ∈ Dt, and α=0 or β=1.<ref name=":1" />

Extensional Identity occurs when an expression α is identical with a prior mentioned expression β, which makes α given.

#They brought some ''beer (β),'' but they didn't drink [''the'' ''beer]''Given ''(α)'' because it was warm.<ref name=":0" />

A hypernym α of another item β is when the meaning of α includes β as a subcategory, making item α given:

X: I brought ''carrots (β)'' to the picnic.

Y: But I don't like [''vegetables'']Given ''(α).''

However, if instead β includes α, there is hyponymy, and the hyponym ''(α)'' is considered to be not given:

X: I put some ''vegetables (β)'' in the soup.

Y: Oh I hate ''carrots (α).'' I hope you didn't put any inside.

Propositional Identity occurs when the proposition ''(α)'' is given because it is identical with the proposition ''(β)'' and proposition ''(β)'' is true.

a. Did you hear that ''Otto went to Russia (β)''?

b. I can't believe that [''he went to Russia]''Given ''(α).''

Asymmetric Entailment occurs when the proposition ''(α)'' is given because the proposition ''(α)'' is always true when the proposition ''(β)'' is true.

a. Did you hear that ''Otto went to Russia''?

b. I can't believe ''[that he left]''Given''(α).''

== Expressing givenness == Givenness can be expressed by anaphoric expressions, deletion, or word order.<ref name=":2" />

=== Anaphoric expressions === ''Anaphoric'' expressions indicate the status of their denotations.<ref name=":2" /> Anaphoric expressions include personal pronouns, clitics and person inflections, demonstratives, and definite articles as well as indefinite articles that indicate a non-given referent.<ref name=":2" />

a. ''The crowd'' approached the gate. The guards were AFRAID of [the women]Given.<ref name=":0" />

b. ''The children'' were up late. I'm reluctant to WAKE [the boys]Given.<ref name=":0" />

c. ''John'' ate garlic bread. Then [he]Given kissed Mary.

=== Decantation === ''Decantation'' is a form of prosodic reduction.

a. Ten years after John inherited an old farm, he SOLD [the shed]Given<ref name=":2" />

Here ''the shed'' is decanted because it is referring to the prior mentioned ''farm''. Decantation is conditioned by Common Ground Management and can be seen as presuppositional because it ''expresses a presupposition of a situationally salient antecedent of a particular sort''.<ref name=":0" />

Decantation can also occur in indefinite noun phrases:

a. If John paints a hot dog, Sam will eat [a hot dog]Given.

Decantation can occur on a focused constituent that is given at the same time, where it does not bear the pitch accent but functions as a focus with ''only'' :<ref name=":0" />

a. X: Everyone already knew that Mary only eats VEGETABLES.

Y: If even PAUL knew that Mary only eats [vegetables]Given, then he should have suggested a different RESTAURANT.

=== Deletion === ''Deletion'' is an extreme form of reduction.<ref name=":2" />

a. Bill went to Greenland, and Mary did _ too.<ref name=":2" />

In this example, one can find the deletion of the VP ''went to Greenland.''

=== Word Order === In the double object construction, given constituents precede new constituents:<ref name=":2" />

a. Bill showed the boy a girl.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Bill showed a boy the girl.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Bill showed the girl a boy.<ref name=":2" />

== Common Ground == Common Ground (CG) in linguistics is the shared knowledge between participants in discourse. It is a set of propositions and entities that are known to both speakers, and is updated during the discourse.<ref name=":0" /> Common Ground can further be divided into

*''Common Ground Management'' (CG Management) that is concerned with the immediate and temporary needs and communicative goals <ref name=":0" /> of discourse partners. *''Common Ground Content'' (CG Content) that records and updates the shared knowledge and belief<ref name=":0" /> of discourse partners.

== Exceptions == Two individuals who spend a lot of time together or have many shared experiences can more easily latch onto each other's givenness in their discourse. However, when that phenomenon is relied upon in future or ongoing conversations, deficits in information can begin to develop, and as a result, it becomes difficult to assess givenness in the context of new conversations.

== References == {{Reflist}}

Category:Semantics Category:Pragmatics Category:Formal semantics (natural language)