Interactional information management: A bottom-up approach based on Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) languages

Basic data for this project

Description

As discourse proceeds, various linguistic devices signal the particular contribution of each unit of information. The currently prevalent frameworks of Information Structure take a deductive approach to explain these devices by examining supposedly universal factors. In contrast, the proposed project has the goal to approach Information Structure from a fundamentally empirical, multifactorial bottom-up perspective. The data-driven analysis will consider large sets of "information structuring" markers commonly found in Trans-Himalayan languages. This will make it possible to trace their diverse and specific interactional, discourse-structuring, attention-monitoring and expectation-guiding functions in naturally occurring speech and in experimental settings. As such, the project will produce the first micro-typology of the language-specific categories which underlie the interactional process of Information Management.