The ‘idea’ in the one-new-idea constraint

This paper offers a conceptual clarification and an operationalization of a classic functionalist generalization: the one-new-idea constraint ( Chafe 1982 , 1987, 1994). While often referenced, this constraint has not, to date, been sufficiently spelled-out or made sufficiently precise to become testable. This paper aims to fill this gap by, first, differentiating the concept of idea into discourse-level and lexical-semantic ideahood. Secondly, we propose that the one-new-idea constraint ( onicon ) should be investigated in Chafe’s (1994) original encompassing sense, where not only referents, but also states and events are tracked. The third clarification applies to the unit of application: As a constraint on speech, this should be the intonation unit as suggested by Chafe, rather than the clause or sentence as suggested elsewhere (e.g. Givón 1990 ). Based on these conceptual refinements, we develop an operationalization for testing the onicon : the tonic (Testing the One-New-Idea Constraint) annotation scheme. This scheme not only allows for in-depth investigation into the robustness of the onicon , but also into information flow on both discourse as well as lexical-semantic levels more broadly. tonic thus serves as a new tool for more holistic research into information flow.