A cross-linguistic computational study on one new idea per clause

Abstract We investigate a notion related to Chafe’s One New Idea Constraint (ONICON), namely that clauses only contain one new idea at a time. We investigate both the nominal and the verbal domain in discourse production data from 16 diverse languages. We find no convincing evidence for a hard constraint on the number of new ideas per clause, nor for speakers actively managing information flow in discourse. The absence of an underlying ONICON is suggested by (1) the fact that NPs co-occurring in a single clause do not have more accessible referents, (2) that observed distributions of information can likewise be reproduced by a randomised mechanism, and (3) the absence of a presentational referent activation pattern. A more likely account of observed discourse production pattern is producers’ overall goal to be both contentful and coherent, the former implying the mentioning of a considerable number of entities and the latter implying predications about these entities. It is in this sense that there is audience design, rather than in an avoidance of information overcharge.