givennew

Given-new is a principle of information structure in linguistics that describes how discourse is organized so that information already accessible to the listener (given) precedes information that is new (new). The concept helps explain why speakers often introduce familiar referents before presenting new details, and why pronouns or definite noun phrases frequently follow introductory material.

Givenness is typically signaled by pronouns, demonstratives, definite noun phrases, or topic markers, while new information tends to appear in the main predicate or in a position of focus. Prosody, word order, and discourse markers often reinforce the given-new distinction, with listeners expecting a smooth transition from what is known to what is not.

The idea is cross-linguistic and interacts with broader information-structure notions such as topic-comment structure and focus. Different languages mark givenness in various ways—through articles, demonstratives, pronoun use, or syntactic position—yet the underlying tendency to favor known information before new content is widespread. This organization supports coherence, reference resolution, and efficient communication in dialogue and narrative.

Examples illustrate the pattern. John bought a car yesterday. The car is red. Here the second sentence uses a definite noun phrase (the car) to refer back to the previously mentioned car, with the new information being the color. Another simple pair: A student entered the room. The student sat near the window. The given element (the student) is established before adding new details.

Applications of the concept appear in linguistics, education, and natural language processing, where givenness informs pronoun resolution, summarization, and discourse parsing.