Visão histórica dos estudos sobre as funções das informações dadas/novas

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a diachronic account of the studies on the functions of given and new information，as described by western theoreticians (there included Eastern Europe) in order to compare them with the same study developed in the East - Japan. This binary notion was selected for our study because our previous paper (cf. note 1)revealed that the Japanese particle wa is related mainly to the notion of given information. Besides, as Levinson (1983) pointed out, some conceptual divergences exist as to the term “given/new information” Based on the discussion of the theoreticians，finally，we will show our theoretical position in relation to this terminological issue.