This reference is

Use of definite article

constraint: I am refering to
"the"
sth. that you know about

Entities easily accesible in

the presupposed
background

They are not the words

Definiteness Topic
themselves

We can talk about "the brakes" whenever

"vehicles" belong to the shared background,
because prototypes vehicles have brakes.

It invites the addressee to set up a

Use of indefinite
representation for a referent, i.e.,
references
to start treating it as a topic.

A wh-clause with an It indicates the

unspecified argument. presuppositions

A noun phrase that supplies the

It carries the new
Characteristics missing details for the unspecified
information
argument in the wh-clause.

Pseudo-clefts BE is the main verb.

As responses in a background
When not to use them that does not fit with their
presuppositions

It highlights a noun phrase

to contrast it with another.
Connecting utterances to

Meaning
"In spite of what you might
think, the person who [action]
the background

was [A], not [B]"

A clause with an
It-clefts It is presupposed
unspecified argument

A noun phrase that

specifies the missing
Clefts and passives argument
Characteristics

BE is the main verb

IT is the grammatical
subject

BE + PAST PARTICIPLE
Structure
VERB + BY(OP.)

The argument that appear as

Characteristics a grammatical subject and
object are interchanged

Actives and their

respective passives are
syntactic converses
Passives
Passives - the addressee is thought to
Present old information
know about the object and not about
ahead of new information
the natural subject

English favors the subject Passive - may be used to make the

Tendencies of English
slot for references to object an obvious topic, a link with
regarding passives
animate beings the background to the discourse

It is syntactically-located In speech, utterances with one Typical position for this

intonational prominence doing syllable more prominent than focal stress is near the end
semantic or pragmatic signalling the others. of a clause.
Focal stress
It is for offering new
information for
verification