SYNTACTIC CONDENSATION AND THE COMMUNICATIVE INFORMATION STRUCTURE OF THE HAVE-EXISTENTIAL

Abstract

The article discusses the have-existential sentence both as an example of syntactic condensation and as a syntactic device of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP), which serves to locate the communicative focus of the message. The functional characteristics of syntactic condensation in written communication are illustrated by examples of have-existential sentences from a contemporary British novel. The research aims at testing Grancharov’s model for functional analysis within the functionalist framework of the Prague School of Linguistics. The correlation between formal and communicative word order outlines a distinction between the terms focus and emphasis and classifies a syntactic device of FSP either as actualizer or as rhematizer, depending on whether it serves to encode new or old information. For maximum objectivity the quality of the information is established on its retrievability from the immediate context.