Definition

1. Noun:
   • (Linguistics) The process or result of giving special emphasis to the topic or focus of a sentence by moving it to the beginning. This is a syntactic construction where an element that is not typically the subject is placed at the start of a sentence to highlight it as the primary topic of discussion.

Usage and Examples

• Noun:
  • The sentence "Those books, I haven't read them yet" is an example of topicalization. (Here, "those books" is the emphasized topic moved to the front.)
  • In the example "Cigarettes, you couldn't pay me to smoke them," the topicalization of "cigarettes" makes it the central point of the statement.
  • Linguists study topicalization to understand how languages structure information and highlight what is important.

Advanced Usage

• As a grammatical process: Topicalization is often discussed in contrast with other focus-marking strategies, such as cleft sentences ("It was John who left").

  • While English often uses topicalization for contrastive focus, other languages might use different morphological or syntactic means.

• In discourse analysis: Topicalization is analyzed for its role in organizing conversation and managing shared knowledge between speakers.

  • The speaker used topicalization to shift the conversation's topic back to the main issue.

Variants and Related Words

• Topicalize (verb): To perform the act of topicalization.

  • The speaker topicalized the object to create a stronger contrast.

• Topic (noun): The subject matter or theme of a sentence or discourse, which topicalization highlights.

• Focus (noun): The element of a sentence given prominence, often achieved through constructions like topicalization.

Synonyms

• Fronting: A broader syntactic term for moving any element to the beginning of a sentence, which includes topicalization.
• Theme preposing: A term sometimes used to describe placing the thematic element at the start.

Related Concepts (Not Phrasal Verbs)

• Left-dislocation: A similar construction where a preposed element is accompanied by a resumptive pronoun (e.g., "My brother, he's a doctor"). Topicalization often overlaps with this.
• Contrastive focus: The pragmatic function often fulfilled by topicalization, where the fronted element is contrasted with other possibilities.

Notes

• Topicalization is a specific term from linguistic theory. In everyday language teaching, it might be referred to simply as "putting the important word first" or "emphasis by fronting."
• It is distinct from the standard subject-verb-object order in English and is used for specific stylistic or emphatic purposes.

Noun

1. (linguistics) emphasis placed on the topic or focus of a sentence by preposing it to the beginning of the sentence; placing the topic at the beginning of the sentence is typical for English
   • `Those girls, they giggle when they see me' and `Cigarettes, you couldn't pay me to smoke them' are examples of topicalization