Topic-comment Structure Research Articles

Forms and Functions of Reduplication in Colloquial Singaporean English

Some characteristics which give Colloquial Singaporean English its distinctive flavour and charm include the use of discourse particles like a, la, ma, ho, le, 10, me and one, invariant is/isn't question tags, got as an existential-locative verb, and topic-comment structures. This article looks at yet another pervasive feature, reduplication. used in the informal discourse of most Singaporeans irrespective of social class and ethnicity. The use of such strategies shows how Singaporeans have adapted the English language to suit their communicative styles and express their own identity. The article discusses how reduplication is used to create new meanings for its users and serves a multiplicity of functions. Examples of reduplication are presented under three grammatical classes: finite verbs and verb groups, nouns and modifiers.

The thetic/categorical distinction revisited once more

This paper discusses the distinction thetic/categorical from the viewpoint of a modular framework where the main components are, on the one hand, grammar (a formal component) and information structure (a functional component), both belonging to the language system, and, on the other, an extralinguistic component, conceptual structure. The interaction between grammar and information structure results in specific clause structures giving rise to a thetic or categorical interpretation, respectively. It is maintained that the syntactic structure of thetic and categorical clauses is the same, the informational difference between them being triggered by the interaction between focus-background structure and topic-comment structure. Thetic clauses, thus, are all-focused and all-comment. In addition, their predicate must have a specific meaning that qualifies the clause for a thetic reading. It is further maintained that the distinction thetic/categorical is an extralinguistic, conceptual distinction between two ways of perspectivizing an event. Thetic stands for a perspective where an event is looked upon as a stage, that is, an event in the flow of other (potential) events; categorical stands for a perspective where an event is divided into two parts, one of which is viewed as an entity to which something happens or which does something. Consequently, there is no such thing as a thetic clause. There are only clauses that - because of their specific informational structure (being all-focused and all-comment) and the right meaning of the predicates, sometimes taking help from cotext - unambiguously give rise to a thetic reading. The thetic reading is triggered by the clause with this specific constellation (primarily its lacking a topic) looking for its topic in CS, picking out the concept of a stage as its topic, and commenting on it

Noun phrase production by agrammatic patients: A cross-linguistic approach

Abstract This paper reports a cross-linguistic study of noun phrase production by agrammatic aphasic speakers of Swedish, French, German, Polish, and English. The subjects were given comparable tests of contrastive naming for the different languages. The study demonstrates problems in noun phrase production, especially in structurally complex noun phrases, indicating increasing problems caused by an increasing processing load. The study further demonstrates great difficulties in the production of double adjectives in noun phrases. Recurring patterns found among the eleven agrammatic patients were: word order deviation (especially noun first), singular for plural (or singular first), use of quantifiers, production of some complex NP structures, and substitutions of grammatical markers, leading to agreement errors in complex NP structures. The findings are discussed in relation to possible strategies such as fragmentation of the noun phrase and/or use of topic-comment structure, as well as attempts to produ...

Contrastive rhetoric: A case of nominalization in Japanese and English discourse

This paper argues for the rhetorical differences in nominalization (nominal clauses and nominal predicates) in novelistic discourse between Japanese and English. Following partly the findings in my earlier studies, I argue that nominalization expresses objectification while the da -predicate creates personal and subjective effects (partly through the use of the topic-comment structure), and that in Japanese these contradictory forces help create a rhetorical style which I call “rhetoric of commentation.” In English, nominalization occurs significantly less frequently and the subject-predicate relationship remains primary in sentence construction as well as in rhetorical effect in discourse. The rhetorical differences contrasted in this study resonate with various other features of the structure and use of the Japanese language vis-à-vis English. The paper emphasizes the importance of contrastive studies in gaining a more comprehensive understanding of cross-linguistic differences in how different cultures view the world, how such views are manifested through language and rhetoric, and how the worlds (re)created in discourse express similar yet different perspectives and meanings.

Demonstratives, referent identification and topicality in Wambon and some other Papuan languages

In Papuan languages like Wambon and Urim demonstrative forms are used both in contexts of referent identification, e.g. as demonstrative operators in noun phrases, and in topicality contexts, e.g. as topic markers with adverbial clauses and phrases, recapitulative clauses, new topic NPs and given topic NPs. Using notions from the Functional Grammar framework (Dik, 1989), I present a non-unified account of the demonstrative forms: helping the addressee to identify referents by giving deictic hints like ‘close to speaker’ and orienting the addressee about the topical cohesion of the discourse are two separate functional domains in language. This ‘two-domain’ hypothesis, which views the demonstrative forms as having two synchronically unrelated functions, explains the fact that in Wambon and Urim the demonstratives show important differences in form and behaviour depending on whether they are used for referent identification or for expressing topicality distinctions. The ‘two-domain’ hypothesis explains such formal differences but cannot explain the formal similarities between topic markers and demonstrative operators in Papuan languages like Wambon and Urim. To explain these formal similarities I suggest a diachronic development: in several Papuan languages topic markers developed from demonstrative operators. In the relatively well-documented Awyu-family of Papuan languages this process can be traced: in Wambon, the resumptive demonstrative pronoun- eve integrated in the preceding NP as a topic marker in stative clauses with a very transparant dichotomous topic-comment structure. In Korowai, also of the Awyu-family, the clitic - efè, function as a demonstrative operator and functions solely as a topic marker.

A crosslinguistic comparison of the production of utterances in discourse

Functionalist theorists have proposed a number of decisions that a speaker has to make regarding the packaging of messages in response to the knowledge shared by the speaker and the listener in a discourse situation. The present study examined some procedures used by French and English speakers to implement message packaging during sentence formulation. The speech of French and English students talking informally about topics of interest to them was recorded, and hesitations were identified and located in the speech. According to the hesitation data, like English speakers, French speakers organised their thoughts into successive units having a variety of structural characterisations. Sentences, surface clauses, basic clauses and phrases were all found to be output units. In addition, French as well as English speakers output clauses containing new information more independently than clauses either containing presupposed information or satisfying an essential argument of the verb. French speakers also differed from English speakers in several ways. During articulation, phrases acted as more tightly integrated output units for French than for English speakers. French speakers also used different syntactic devices from English speakers for introducing and focussing on topics in the discourse. They did this by means other than the use of lexical subjects, such as left-detached topics and cleft sentences, supporting the hypothesis that spoken French has topic-comment structure, while English has subject-verb-object organisation. The crosslinguistic differences were argued to result largely from the distinct prosodic characteristics of the languages. The results were seen as providing new evidence for the similar and contrasting ways in which speakers of different languages respond to decisions about message packaging.

The Transfer of Anaphors in Translation

This paper adopts Government-Binding (GB) Theory and some Chinese-specific conditions to explain the various uses of anaphors such as the reflexive, pronoun, PROi trace, pro and variable in Mandarin Chinese. The transfer of each anaphor is specified for Chinese-English and EnglishChinese machine translation systems. We identify the situations in which the coreferential relationship between an anaphor and its antecedent is useful for transfer. Chinese reflexive is translated according to its function and its antecedent. In some situations, the interpretation of pronouns in English is ambiguous at sentence level, but its Chinese counterpart has only one reading. One-to-many interpretation in Chinese-English translation may be disambiguated by the readers. However, many-to-one interpretation in English-Chinese translation cannot be treated without pronoun resolution. PRO has direct translation between English and Chinese. For translating topic-comment structures and ba-constructions, the moved constituent is taken back from its landing site to its empty site (trace), and then the structural transfer is done. For relative clauses and beiconstructions, the position occupied by trace in English is still left empty in Chinese. Because variable does not appear in English, the other English anaphors are used during the transfer of Chinese pro and variable. The translation of them should involve the discourse knowledge.

Discourse Structure in Nonnative English Discourse

A frequently discussed hypothesis concerning the source of cross-linguistic communication difficulty in written discourse is conflicting organizational patterns (Kaplan, 1966, 1987). Extending the argument to oral discourse, Young (1982) argued that spoken English discourse produced by Chinese speakers evidenced a discourse-level topic-comment structure that native English speakers find difficult to follow. However, Tyler (1988) argued that the perception of incoherence might better be understood as the cumulative result of interacting miscues at the discourse level, that is, miscues in syntactic incorporation, lexical discourse markers, tense/aspect, and lexical The study reported here aims at testing these competing hypotheses. One hundred fifteen subjects rated four versions of the Chinese-produced English discourse presented in Young's study for comprehensibility. Results indicated that the effect of discourse miscues on comprehensibility was highly significant (F= 70,p<.0001). However, there was no significant effect for order of ideas (F= .47,p<.49).

Topic Structures As Language Universals

The continuous process of language mixing which takes place in the development of creole continua is particularly suited to favor the emergence of language universals. Topic-comment structures are found to be extensively used in English-based Caribbean basilects. Furthermore, topic prominence is also characteristic of the mesolectal and acrolectal va-rieties acquired by native speakers of creole vernaculars. Topic strategies are identified as they occur throughout the continuum, and in particular as they extend to other structures. More specifically, dislocation strategies are found to spread relativization through the circuitous route of relexified topic particles. It is argued that if there is a "bioprogram" (Bickerton 1981), it might be reflected not only in creole grammars, but also, and perhaps more extensively still, in the strategies represented in the contigu-ous acrolects, as well as in other situations involving conflicting linguistic systems.

‘Shared knowledge’ and topicality

The ‘shared knowledge’ often associated with specific linguistic forms, such as definite descriptions, cleft constructions and specific intonation contours is shown to be a function of the role of these constructions in encoding the topic-comment structure of a sentence. It is argued that this explains certain properties of the relation between shared knowledge and linguistic form, in particular: (1) why ‘shared knowledge’ is associated with some forms and not with others; (2) why ‘shared knowledge’ is not consistently associated even with these forms; and (3) why what is assumed to be ‘shared’ is familiarity with a discourse entity and not necessarily belief in the truth of a corresponding proposition.

The structure of coordination in first language acquisition of Mandarin Chinese: Evidence for a universal

This study exemplifies a type of cross-linguistic research which is based on the theory that certain parameters of natural language variation are central to the human competence for language. Sensitivity to these parameters allows the child to develop various specific language structures which follow from setting the parameters. Results of this study provide evidence that children are universally sensitive to one such parameter, namely, Principal Branching Direction. Data are based on results of a standardized elicited imitation test of 68 Chinese children in Taiwan between 2;0 and 4;5 with mean age of 3;3. The test is on a set of coordinate sentences. The results show that children acquiring Mandarin Chinese (a left-branching language) systematically prefer VO sentences with a backward reduction pattern ([V + V]O) over those with a forward reduction pattern (V[O + O]). Children's responses to SV coordinate sentences differ systematically from their VO responses. They very frequently reduce redundant subjects in a forward direction (in SV sentences) and do not prefer backward reduction ([S + S])V) over forward reduction (S[V + V]) in these SV sentences. This paper suggests an explanation of this apparent paradox in terms of an interaction in early language acquisition between children's sensitivity to a predominant Chinese topic-comment structure (in SV) and their sensitivity to the abstract, specifically grammatical concept of “Principal Branching Direction”.

Topic-Comment Structure and the Use of toze and takze

Topic-Comment Structure and the Use of toze and takze