Information Structure in Persian: A Comparison of Systemic Functional Grammar & Role and Reference Grammar

The aim of this paper is to compare the approaches to Persian information structure in two functional theories: Systemic Functional Grammar & Role and Reference Grammar. By selecting 400 data from scientific and educational texts, stories and newspapers we have analyzed the relationship between information structure in one hand, and phonology, semantics, morphology and syntax in another hand based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar & VanValin’s Role and Reference Grammar. Also, advantages and disadvantages of the mentioned approaches in relation to information structure are investigated. After discussing what is meant by information distribution in each theory, we examine the classification of focus in each approach. Finally the obtained results of Persian data show that the relationship between information structure in one hand and phonology, semantics, morphology and syntax in another hand is not regular and rule-governed. Moreover, studies represent despite the different analytical methods and the shortcomings of each theory, the obtained outcomes in the framework of these two approaches have some in common because of similarity in functional nature of the both.