Initial Direct Objects in English Formal and Semantic Characteristics and Discourse Functions

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a corpus-based study of topicalization, defined in the narrowest sense as moving of the direct object to the initial position in declarative sentences in written English. The analysis starts with examining formal and semantic characteristics of fronted direct objects and the sentences in which they appear, and then proceeds beyond the sentence level, in an attempt to identify various discourse functions of topicalization. Depending primarily on the form of fronted direct objects (NPs of various complexity and nominal clauses) and the type of the relationship of their referents to previously evoked discourse entities, it is possible to note that different functions of topicalization are realised in various degrees. Although sometimes viewed merely as a syntactic construction which marks given information, thereby enabling easier message interpretation to the hearer/reader, topicalization can be considered also from the point of view of its textually-cohesive contribution. As a means of dissociating the functions of Theme, Actor, and Subject, it makes the marked Theme the starting point of the message, giving it a particular status in relation to the surrounding discourse. Among semantic and pragmatic functions, common for all preposings, marking the referent of the topicalized DO as being in a salient set relation to another discourse entity has shown to be very significant. Finally, it is also possible to view topicalization as a stylistic and rhetorical device by which the speaker/writer re-orders the position of sentence elements in order to achieve a particular effect and, in a way, 'impose' the desired interpretation.