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By Betty J. Birner

A research of discourse-functional constraints at the use of a marked syntactic development. Argues that inversion in clauses serves an information-packaging functionality, linking commonplace and strange details within the discourse. Demonstrates a correlation among a well-defined form of giveness and c

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See also Green 1985 and Bresnan 1990 for more examples of this type and discussion; cf. ) Similarly, not all instances of TI with a preposed locative are equally acceptable without there: 12 37. (a) How was it that at this moment, for the first time, there darted through Gwendolen, like a disagreeable sensation, the idea that this man knew all about her husband's life? How was it that at this moment, for the first time, darted through Gwendolen, like a disagreeable sensation, the idea that this man knew all about her husband's life?

Let us now consider the proposal that locative inversion (as in 27a) and there-insertion with a preposed locative (as in 27c) are variants of a single construction with optional pro-drop. It is important to note that the proposed relationship is typically framed in terms of locative inversion rather than inversion in general; in fact, the vast majority of non-PP, non-locative inversions in the corpus are either unacceptable as 26 The Discourse Function of Inversion in English there-insertions or seem quite different in structure with (unstressed) dummy there: 32.

It is, moreover, intonationally distinct as well. As can be demonstrated by uttering the tokens in 24 aloud, the post-verbal NP would be pronounced with a low pitch accent (L*), whereas all other inversion types are typically pronounced with a high pitch accent (H*) on the post-verbal NP (see also Hartvigson and Jakobsen 1974:79, Green 1980:591). 9 This, however, is not surprising if the function of quotation inversion differs from that of other inversions, as seems to be the case. ) Consider, for example, 26: 26.

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