FG and the dynamics of discourse 2292.4. Focus of attention
Resulting from the merging of attentional framing and structural con-
straints, linguistic representations are here viewed as instructions to modify
the S’s and A’s Focus of attention or current discourse space in particular
ways (cf. Hannay 1991, 1998; Harder 1996; Vallduví and Engdahl 1996;
Gómez-González 2001). These instructions – and naturally the correspond-
ing expressions – are here regarded as interpersonally-oriented textual
choices that are cognitively rooted, on the basis of their broadly bi-
dimensional functionality, i.e. their perspective-creating capability, and
their action as discourse markers, packaging information into digestible
units, both aspects influencing the way reality is monitored (encoded or de-
coded) by the human (S’s and A’s) cognitive system.
In unmarked cases, the instructions given by discourse expressions tend
to seek for sameness and usually reflect a static viewing: a constant per-
spective that entails instructions of continuity of discourse participants, of
referential predictability and of foregrounded or discourse-focused mate-
rial. By contrast, as a deviation from the norm, marked discourse
expressions are natural symptoms of a subjective viewpoint and signal an
invitation for a dynamic viewing, entailing, among other things: a topic
change, a change in focus of attention to formerly backgrounded (or de-
focused) material, and digressions or turns within the structure of the text
(Fox 1985; Givón 1985b, 1987, 1988; García 1994: 337).
By way of illustration, we would argue that (1a) above, a Subject-verb
inversion, in contrast with its non-inverted counterpart (1b), and the there-
existential construction in (2a), with a non-existential marked (inverted)
version (2b) and two unmarked alternatives between two different kinds of
expansions or tails (2c, 2d), entail different conceptual organizations or di-
rections of mental scanning. In each case the Theme zone, whether or not it
carries intonational prominence (Focus), provides an orientational frame
with reference to which rightward expansions or increments of discourse
are to be processed, thereby instructing both S and A to focus their atten-
tion accordingly.
In (1a) the Theme zone entails a locational path of access, nested from
more generic spatial reference (i.e. focal There) to more detailed location,
on the table, a focal spatial modifier that houses an equally focalized par-
ticipant, my newspaper, in the relative elaboration, thereby empathizing
with or providing a profiled relationship to the narrator via possession, the
possessor, my, and the possessed, newspaper. The stage being set through
this thematic spatial and empathic grounding, it then specifies what is