Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics
- Cambridge Handbooks In Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Part One Writing System/Neuro-cognitive Processing of Chinese
- Part Two Morpho-lexical Issues in Chinese
- Part Three Phonetic-phonological Issues in Chinese
- Part Four Syntax-semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Issues
- 19 SVO as the Canonical Word Order in Modern Chinese
- 20 SOV as the Canonical Word Order in Modern Chinese
- 21 Semantic and Pragmatic Conditions on Word Order Variation in Chinese
- 22 The Case for Case in Chinese
- 23 The Case without Case in Chinese
- 24 The Syntax of Classifiers in Mandarin Chinese
- 25 The Chinese Classifier System as a Lexical-semantic System
- 26 Syntax of Sentence-final Particles in Chinese
- 27 Sentence-final Particles
- 28 Topicalization Defined by Syntax
- 29 An Interactive Perspective on Topic Constructions in Mandarin
- 30 Grammatical Acceptability in Mandarin Chinese
- Index
- References
28 - Topicalization Defined by Syntax
from Part Four - Syntax-semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Issues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2022
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics
- Cambridge Handbooks In Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Part One Writing System/Neuro-cognitive Processing of Chinese
- Part Two Morpho-lexical Issues in Chinese
- Part Three Phonetic-phonological Issues in Chinese
- Part Four Syntax-semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Issues
- 19 SVO as the Canonical Word Order in Modern Chinese
- 20 SOV as the Canonical Word Order in Modern Chinese
- 21 Semantic and Pragmatic Conditions on Word Order Variation in Chinese
- 22 The Case for Case in Chinese
- 23 The Case without Case in Chinese
- 24 The Syntax of Classifiers in Mandarin Chinese
- 25 The Chinese Classifier System as a Lexical-semantic System
- 26 Syntax of Sentence-final Particles in Chinese
- 27 Sentence-final Particles
- 28 Topicalization Defined by Syntax
- 29 An Interactive Perspective on Topic Constructions in Mandarin
- 30 Grammatical Acceptability in Mandarin Chinese
- Index
- References
Summary
In this chapter, we present a general picture of how topicalization and topicality can be defined in morphosyntactic terms. We start with an overview of the syntax and semantics of topics from the vantage point of generative syntax and formal logic. We then show that the notion of topic prominence can be defined by typological correlations through a systematic survey across languages. By applying objective tests to sort out the ‘grey areas’ or the spectrum effects of topicality, this line of research may well contribute to our pursuit of an optimal solution to the mystery of linguistic variations: Both the macro-parameter setting of analyticity and the micro-parameter setting of null topic are to be justified on empirical grounds, which, if so justified, will provide an explicit account of the inner working of topicalization, as well as its interaction with other types of syntactic mechanisms such as pro-drop and focalization.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics , pp. 616 - 634Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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