Topicalization Topicalization Topicalization is a syntactic movement that is based on
discourse and pragmatics. Here, we will consider only discourse motivated
topicalization. Let us start with the smallest type of discourse known:
a two sentence discourse, formed with simple sentences. We will call this
a mini-discourse:
In the seocnd sentence, tell men is a topicalized NP. More specifically, the NP is placed in focus--the consturction is sometimes called fronting:
In the mini-discourse here, we know who Mary is and we know that she is at a party. The speaker in the first sentence is telling us some new information: that Mary spotted a tall man. The new information is in Italics. In the second half of the mini-discourse, the second sentence, the speaker wishes to focus on the tall man giving the listener more information condering Mary and the tall man.
Let us assume that the above mini-discourse is a complete discourse. Then the following antecedent links hold:
The definite NP is linked to N in the previous sentence, and the definite pronoun she is linked to Mary in the preceding sentences. This follows from what we have postulated earlier about discourse linking.
Next, lets build a mini-discourse structure. To keep it
simple, we will use a form of argument structure. Let us call this mini-discourse
Focus. Focus takes two arguments:
Prop is a full proposition which includes negation, mood, tense, aspect, voice, and a basic proposition, plus lexical modifiers, which do not occur in the above mini-discourse. FProp is a full proposition with a focal marker. The focal marking links the two propositions together. Let us put further semantics aside except to note that the sentences must be linked--the item in the focal position must be linked to an antecedent. Otherwise, the two sentences would make no sense:
'[*]' means that the two sentences cannot be properly interpreted for discourse relevance. [The chocolate cake] has been fronted to the focal positon, but there is no link between it and any NP in the first sentence.
The first proposition is realized as a D-structure in the syntax. The F-proposition is realized as a D-structure. Now suppose add another category: FP (Focus phrase). Focus phrase subcategorizes CP (mood):
(Here CP is the second sentence). F contains a contains a target marker feature. Some consituent in the F-proposiiton must be targeted for focus. The speaker has chosen to focus on the tall man--it is assigned the focus target feature [+F]:
Go back to course outline
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