given (adj.)

A term used by some LINGUISTS in a two-part analysis of UTTERANCES in terms of INFORMATION structure; ‘given’ information is opposed to NEW. (The contrast between FOCUS and PRESUPPOSITION makes an analogous distinction.) ‘Given’ refers to information already supplied by the previous linguistic CONTEXT whereas ‘new’ information, as its name suggests, has not been previously supplied. Given information will usually be relatively unstressed within the TONE UNIT: e.g. in the sequence A: What are you looking at? B: I’m looking at a book, all but the final phrase is given; in A: What are you doing? B: I’m looking at a book, the context shows that only the first part of the sentence is given. Complications arise when the new information is PROSODICALLY ‘spread’ throughout a tone unit, however, as in your cóusin’s had a bàby, and analyses in these terms are not without controversy.