The first sentence, with a las tres y mediaat the end, is the obvious vehicle
for countering the claim that the children come out at some other time (e.g.
four o’clock).
In contrast, the second sentence can only be used for this purpose if the
phrase a las tres y mediareceives spoken emphatic stress. In the absence
of such emphatic stress the natural focus of the second sentence is the
phrase salen los niños, i.e. whathappens and not when.
The principle that new or important information comes at the end of the
sentence has the following consequences.
The subject often follows the verb in answers to questions
In a sentence given in response to a question asking ¿quién?or ¿qué?, if
the subject supplies the answer it will usually come after the verb:
–¿Quien fue a la cena? –Fueron Ana, Lole y Miguel.
‘Who went to the dinner?’ ‘Ana, Lole and Miguel went.’
–¿Qué se ha caído? –Se ha caído el puente.
‘What has fallen down?’ ‘The bridge has fallen down.’
Indefinite subjects often follow the verb
A subject that is a noun preceded by the indefinite article, by a numeral or
by an indefinite adjective (e.g. mucho ‘many’, alguno ‘some’) is very likely
to be the main bearer of new information in a sentence. Therefore the
subject often follows the verb in this type of case:
Llegaron un montón de A load of police showed up.
policías.
Faltaban tres chicas. Three girls were missing.
Han desaparecido unos cuantos Several books have
libros. disappeared.
Note: If the focus of the sentence is the verb or verb phrase itself, an indefinite
subject will usually come first: Mucha gente se fue‘Many people left’. This puts the
focus on the idea of leaving, in contrast to Se fue mucha gente, which puts the focus
on the quantityof people who left.
28.1.2
28.1.1
1111
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
12111
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
40
41111
New versus
old
information
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