CONTEXT-DEPENDENT INFORMATION PROCESSING: TOWARDS AN EXPECTATION-BASED PARSING MODEL OF INFORMATION STRUCTURE

The ways language encodes information depend on when and how the preceding linguistic and non-linguistic context has established it in the par-ticipants’ working memory. Information-Structure categories such as Focus and Topic are used to signal that the conveyed information is, respectively, the con-tribution of the message to the addressee’s knowledge or simply something meant to link the message to the context. Information introduced within a context (“Given”) is expected to be encoded as a Topic, while “New” information is more likely to appear in Focus. The results of a dedicated EEG experiment will show that violation of such expectations causes supplementary processing costs, revealed by rhythmic changes in different frequency bands.