---
title: "From information structure, topic and focus, to theme in Biblical Hebrew — Floor 2004"
description: "He then builds up from clause topics to the theme of a stretch of text. Cited by 5 papers here."
authors: ["Sebastiaan Jonathan Floor"]
year: 2004
venue: "SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)"
source: "https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1270"
licence: "Open access (free to read); no CC licence stated — read only (SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University))"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/floor-2004-information-structure-topic-focus-theme/"
---
[Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/floor-2004-information-structure-topic-focus-theme/)

[home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2004](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2004/) / From information structure, topic and focus, to theme in Biblical Hebrew

# From information structure, topic and focus, to theme in Biblical Hebrew

**Authors:** Sebastiaan Jonathan Floor · **Year:** 2004 · **Venue:** PhD dissertation, Stellenbosch University (SUNScholar) **Link:** [scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1270](https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1270) · not in the library (download refused, HTTP 429, 2026-10-17) · **Licence:** free to read, no CC licence — summary only

[**3** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2144534909) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 · [**5** citations in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/floor-2004-information-structure-topic-focus-theme/cited-by/) of the 140,884 papers whose bibliographies we read · [SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)](https://openalex.org/S4306400300)

- [Publisher's page](https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1270)
- [PDF](https://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstreams/a3a91ad8-5796-4e39-bd19-0cd4367e01b0/download)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2144534909)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Sebastiaan Jonathan Floor](https://openalex.org/A5024613154) h 1 · 3 citations · 1 works

Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

**Not read: the PDF could not be fetched.** From the title and the dissertation's known place in the literature (it is a standard reference on Hebrew information structure, built on Lambrecht's theory): Floor distinguishes topic (what a clause is about) from focus (the new, asserted part), uses Lambrecht's three focus types (predicate focus, argument focus, sentence focus), and explains the pre-verbal position in Hebrew as the slot for a topic switch or for a narrow (argument) focus. He then builds up from clause topics to the *theme* of a stretch of text. Check every point against the text.

## Ideas

- I1. (to check) For every Torah clause with a constituent before the finite verb, label the fronted item as topic switch (it was mentioned before and the subject changes) or argument focus (new or contrastive); compute the two shares.
- I3. (to check) A paragraph "theme" as the most frequent topic referent across its clauses; compare with Masoretic paragraph division.

## For Mova

- I2. (to check) Add Lambrecht's focus types as a column in `prag.tsv`: predicate focus for the default VS clause, argument focus for X-V with a contrast, sentence focus for presentational clauses (וְהִנֵּה, וַיְהִי …).

I1–I2 apply to `tools/macula/src/prag.rs` (a new column) and to [languages/hbo/08-syntax.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/08-syntax/) (word order) and `09-discourse.md`; I3 to the paragraph section of `09-discourse.md`. Re-read once the PDF is in.

Topics[Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/)

## Cite

Cite as Sebastiaan Jonathan Floor. 2004. From information structure, topic and focus, to theme in Biblical Hebrew. SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University).

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{floor2004information,
  title = {{From information structure, topic and focus, to theme in Biblical Hebrew}},
  author = {Sebastiaan Jonathan Floor},
  booktitle = {SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)},
  year = {2004},
  url = {https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1270}
}
```

- [← previous OntoSem Methods for Processing Semantic Ellipsis](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/mcshane-2004-ontosem-methods-processing-semantic-ellipsis/)
- [next → Robust VPE Detection using Automatically Parsed Text](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/nielsen-2004-robust-vpe-detection-automatically-parsed/)
- [↑ back to papers of 2004](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2004/)