Informationsstruktur: die sprachlichen mittel der Gliederung von äußerung, satz und text –Sonderforschungsbereich 632

Welchen Bedingungen unterliegt menschliche Kommunikation? Welche sprachlichen Mittel verwendet ein Sprecher um sicherzustellen, dass sein Zuhörer tatsächlich das versteht, was er kommunizieren möchte? Wie also »verpacken« wir wichtige und weniger wichtige Informationen im alltäglichen Diskurs? Diesen und anderen Fragen geht der SFB 632 »Informationsstruktur«, ein gemeinsames Forschungsunternehmen von Linguisten verschiedener Teildisziplinen der Universität Potsdam und der Humboldt-Universität, nach.\ud \ud Research background: \ud This article presents a concise outline of the research project dealing with the ways humans structure their discourse in spoken languages, financed by the German Research Council. The joint project involves the University of Potsdam and the Humboldt University of Berlin. The article investigates the nature of human communication, and linguistic devices successful interaction with the addressee. Participants within the project specialize in a wide variety of languages, with a special focus on previously undescribed languages from Africa.\ud \ud Research contribution: \ud The main contribution of this article to the field lies in the formulation of relevant parameters in discourse structure organization, and the ways in which it is marked, including focus constructions and topic markers, in a wide-range of languages of the world. The article is innovative in that it puts forward hypotheses concerning the correlations between language structure and language change in the way information structure is organized. Its further contribution lies in its focus on cognitive parameters in discourse organization.\ud \ud Research significance: \ud This is a significant contribution in that it formulates the major parameters of variation in the expression of information structure in the world's languages. It reflects a holistic approach to language structure and human communication and cognition