Marked Constructions as Discourse Resources
English sentences are often introduced through a relatively predictable subject–verb–object pattern: Students use the library, The university renovated the building, or The committee approved the proposal. This pattern is useful for describing basic sentence structure, but authentic discourse contains many constructions that depart from it. Celce-Murcia and Olshtain describe these alternatives as marked constructions: grammatical structures that do not follow the normal subject–verb–object pattern and that speakers and writers may select because of the way information is developing in a discourse. English examples include wh-clefts, it-clefts, and sentences beginning with existential there. Their importance becomes clearer when they are examined in connected discourse rather than as isolated grammar patterns.
Why Use a Marked Construction?
A marked construction is not simply a more complicated way of expressing an ordinary sentence. Its form can serve a particular discourse or rhetorical function. Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (1999) argue that many grammatical choices depend on meaning, context, and the surrounding co-text. Grammatical accuracy therefore represents only part of knowing a construction. Speakers and writers must also know when that construction is appropriate and what it contributes to the developing discourse.
Consider the library text:
There are now several collaborative areas on the first floor.
A more direct subject-first sentence might be:
Several collaborative areas are now on the first floor.
Both are grammatical, but they do not package the information in exactly the same way. Similarly:
What many students requested was more flexible study space.
could be rewritten:
Many students requested more flexible study space.
Again, both versions communicate similar propositional content, but the marked construction organizes and highlights that content differently. The important question for discourse analysis is therefore not merely, “What does the sentence mean?” but also, “Why has the producer chosen this structure at this point in the discourse?”
Existential There: Introducing Information for Development
In an existential construction, there occupies the initial grammatical subject position:
There are now several collaborative areas on the first floor.
There have been several complaints about noise.
There is also a new reservation system for group rooms.
The word there in these examples does not refer to a location. Instead, it allows another noun phrase—several collaborative areas, several complaints, or a new reservation system—to be introduced after the verb.
Drawing on Sasaki’s analysis of spoken discourse, Celce-Murcia and Olshtain explain that the noun phrase following existential there, which they call the logical subject, tends to present new information. Importantly, that new information often persists as a topic in the discourse that follows. At the same time, the new item is usually related to something that has already been established rather than beginning a completely unrelated discourse episode.
This pattern is evident in the library text. The opening paragraph first establishes the changing role of the university library. Only after that general context has been created does the writer say:
There are now several collaborative areas on the first floor.
The collaborative areas are new information, but they clearly belong to the already established topic of changes in the library. The following discourse then develops this new subtopic by explaining what students can do in those spaces.
The same pattern occurs with:
There have been several complaints about noise.
The text has already described the new collaborative spaces. The existential construction now introduces complaints as another relevant subtopic. Subsequent sentences develop the issue by explaining that some students prefer quiet areas while others support collaborative learning. This closely reflects the discourse function described in the source: existential there can introduce a specific subtopic for subsequent development within a more general topic that has already been established.
Wh-Clefts: Refocusing and Highlighting Information
A second marked construction in the sample is the wh-cleft, sometimes called a pseudo-cleft. It typically has a form such as:
What + clause + be + focused information
For example:
What many students requested was more flexible study space.
What the university decided to create was a combination of quiet and interactive spaces.
What seems to matter most is how the different spaces are managed.
What the redesign demonstrates is that one building can support several kinds of academic activity.
These sentences could all be expressed through more ordinary structures. For example:
Many students requested more flexible study space.
However, the wh-cleft separates the message into two parts and gives particular prominence to the information following be. The construction tells the reader that this element deserves special attention.
Celce-Murcia and Olshtain draw on Kim’s analysis of conversational wh-clefts, which identifies a general function of marking a disjunction with preceding discourse. The speaker can use the construction to return to, summarize, clarify, or refocus something already under discussion. Informational wh-clefts may restate the gist of a discussion, summarize it, or refocus the topic, while interactional uses may respond to misunderstanding or repair an earlier contribution.
In the library text, the informational function is especially important. After describing students’ opinions, the sentence
What many students requested was more flexible study space
extracts the central point from the preceding discussion. Later,
What seems to matter most is how the different spaces are managed
moves the reader away from a simple disagreement over whether collaboration belongs in a library and refocuses attention on management of the spaces. The final wh-cleft performs an even stronger summarizing function:
What the redesign demonstrates is that one building can support several kinds of academic activity.
It packages the major interpretation that the writer wants the reader to take away from the text.
From Identifying Form to Explaining Function
For discourse analysis, learners should move beyond simply labeling There are several… as existential there or What students wanted was… as a wh-cleft. Identification is only the first step. The more important analysis asks what information preceded the construction, what information the construction highlights or introduces, and what happens to that information afterward.
The library text illustrates two complementary information-management strategies. Existential there introduces new but contextually related entities that can become topics for further development. Wh-clefts allow the writer to return to the discourse, refocus it, summarize an important point, or give particular information greater rhetorical prominence. These structures demonstrate why grammar needs to be studied above the sentence level: the choice of grammatical form helps speakers and writers control what enters the discourse, what remains topical, and what the audience is encouraged to notice as especially important.