This essay deals with information structure, its linguistic expression and the grammar-pragmatics interface. It thus explores logically independent referential and relational givenness/newness in information structure. The latter’s topic-focus partition can only apply to linguistic expressions, specifically sentences or utterances and their interpretations. As to the grammar-pragmatics interface, it is argued that whilst the referentiality condition on topics is a semantic, grammar-based, restriction, the stronger familiarity condition on topics is pragmatic and relevance-based. The important question for future research then is not whether information structure is basically grammatical or pragmatic, but which information structural concepts and properties are purely linguistic, i.e. grammar-driven, and which are derivable from more general pragmatic principles that govern language production and understanding.