Information Structure and the Ellipsis and Word Order in Longxi Qiang br

In this article, we analyze the ellipsis and word order changes in Longxi Qiang from the<br />perspective of information structure. In addition, we discuss how focus affects word order and the im- portance of projection in utterances. Evidence from the Qiang language proves that grammatical struc- ture emerges out of discourse, which is different from solid grammar and morphology at the syntactic level. Conveying and understanding information is a linear process. The beginning of a sentenc con- veys the most important information, determining which elements appear at the beginning of the sen- tence. By analyzing the discourse structure of Qiang, we find that theme is not necessarily an equiva- lence to topic. Theme is the start of information structure, while topic does not always appear in the first place of the sentence. Nominal arguments are always omitted. The addressee can infer the hean- ing from the start of an utterance, which is different from the nominal omission in other languages. The nominal argument at the beginning expresses the most important information. The addresste in- fers the predicate from the contexts.