Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Topicalization
Summary
Topicalization is a mechanism of syntax that establishes an expression as the sentence or clause topic by having it appear at the front of the sentence or clause (as opposed to in a canonical position further to the right). This involves a phrasal movement of determiners, prepositions, and verbs to sentence-initial position. Topicalization often results in a discontinuity and is thus one of a number of established discontinuity types, the other three being wh-fronting, scrambling, and extraposition. Topicalization is also used as a constituency test; an expression that can be topicalized is deemed a constituent. The topicalization of arguments in English is rare, whereas circumstantial adjuncts are often topicalized. Most languages allow topicalization, and in some languages, topicalization occurs much more frequently and/or in a much less marked manner than in English. Topicalization in English has also received attention in the pragmatics literature.
Typical cases of topicalization are illustrated with the following examples:
a. The boys roll rocks for entertainment.
b. For entertainment, the boys roll rocks. -Topicalization of the adjunct for entertainment
a. Everyone refused to answer because the pressure was too great.
b. Because the pressure was too great, everyone refused to answer. - Topicalization of the adjunct because the pressure was too great
a. I won't eat that pizza.
b. That pizza, I won't eat. - Topicalization of the object argument that pizza
a. I am terrified of those dogs.
b. Those dogs, I am terrified of. - Topicalization of the object argument those dogs
Assuming that the a-sentences represent canonical word order, the b-sentences contain instances of topicalization. The constituent in bold is fronted to establish it as topic. The first two examples, which use topicalized adjuncts, are typical, but the last two examples with topicalized object arguments are comparatively rare. The appearance of the demonstrative determiners that and those is important since without them, topicalization of an argument seems less acceptable: A pizza I won't eat.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.