The Architecture of Meaning
A comprehensive exploration of how sentences convey information, from established context to new assertions.
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Definitions and Examples
Topic vs. Comment
In linguistics, the topic (or theme) of a sentence is the element that is being discussed, while the comment (or rheme, or focus) is what is being said about that topic. This distinction forms the basis of information structure, which organizes how new and old information is presented within a clause.[1] While most clauses are divided this way, the precise boundaries can vary depending on the specific grammatical theory employed.
Pragmatics vs. Syntax
The topic of a sentence is primarily determined by pragmatic considerations—its contextual relevance and what it refers to. This contrasts with the grammatical subject, which is defined by syntax. While often the same, the topic and subject can be distinct. For instance, in the sentence, "As for the little girl, the dog bit her," the grammatical subject is "the dog," but the topic, or what the sentence is about, is "the little girl."[2]
Subject, Agent, and Topic
The topic is also distinct from the agent (the "doer" of an action), which is defined semantically. In passive voice constructions, like "The little girl was bitten by the dog," "the little girl" is both the subject and the topic, while "the dog" is the agent. The agent may be omitted or follow a preposition like "by."
Expletives and Topic Determination
Sentences with expletives (syntactic placeholders like "it" or "there") often have topics determined pragmatically, rather than by the expletive subject. For example, in "It is raining," the topic is the general state of affairs, not "it." Similarly, in "There are two days in the year in which the day and the night are equal in length," the topic is the concept of these specific days, not the expletive "there." In such cases, the entire sentence often functions as the comment.
Distinguishing Linguistic and Rhetorical Topics
It is important to distinguish the linguistic topic-comment structure from similar concepts in discourse analysis, such as in Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). While both deal with information flow, the linguistic definition focuses on sentence-level organization, often linking the topic to prior context and the comment to new information, whereas RST analyzes larger discourse units and their rhetorical relations.
Realization of Topic-Comment
Intonation and Word Order
Languages employ various methods to signal the topic-comment distinction. Prominent among these are intonation patterns and specific word orders. Many languages exhibit a tendency for topicalized elements to appear at the beginning of a clause, a phenomenon known as topic fronting, irrespective of their grammatical role.
Pronouns and Pro-Drop
Sentences that continue discussing an established topic often utilize pronouns. In many languages, particularly those that are pro-drop (allowing omission of subject pronouns), these pronouns are frequently used to refer back to the topic, which commonly aligns with the grammatical subject.
Topic-Comment in English
Fronting and Intonation
In English, the topic or theme typically occupies the initial position within a clause. This placement is often reinforced by specific intonation patterns, marking it as the established context for the rest of the utterance.[6]
Topic-Prominent Formulations
While English is generally considered subject-prominent, it readily accommodates topic-prominent structures when contextually advantageous. This is often achieved through introductory phrases such as "as for," "regarding," or "concerning." These constructions are particularly valuable for smoothly transitioning a listener's attention between different topics, offering a flexible rhetorical strategy.
Topic-Comment Across Languages
East Asian Markers
Languages like Japanese and Korean frequently employ specific postpositions, known as topic markers (e.g., Japanese '-wa', Korean '-(n)eun'), to explicitly identify the topical element following a noun or phrase.[5]
African French and Slavic Orders
In some varieties of African French, the postposition "là" can function to mark the topic. Slavic languages, such as Russian and Czech, often utilize word order flexibility, with the topic typically preceding the focus. Intonation plays a crucial role in distinguishing between subjective (topic-initial) and objective (focus-initial) constructions.[5]
Hebrew and ASL
Modern Hebrew, particularly in informal speech, may place the topic after the comment, often using an expletive subject. American Sign Language (ASL) employs distinct non-manual signals, such as raised eyebrows and head tilt, at the beginning of a sentence to establish the topic before presenting the comment.
Practical Applications
Embodied Conversational Agents
Understanding information structure, including the topic-comment distinction, is vital for designing sophisticated embodied conversational agents (virtual assistants). This knowledge informs the assignment of intonational focus and the coordination of speech with non-verbal cues like posture and gesture, enhancing natural interaction.[7]
Information Retrieval and Summarization
The principles of topic-comment structure have also been explored for applications in information retrieval and automatic summarization. By analyzing how topics are introduced and developed, systems can potentially improve document ranking and generate more coherent summaries.[8][9]
Historical Development
Early Conceptualization
The distinction between subject and topic was first systematically proposed by Henri Weil in 1844, who linked information structure to word order.[10] Later, Georg von der Gabelentz differentiated between the "psychological subject" (akin to topic) and "psychological object" (akin to focus).
Prague School and Functional Grammar
The concept was further developed by the Prague School linguists, notably Vilém Mathesius, who termed it "topic-focus articulation." His work, along with that of Jan Firbas and Petr Sgall, emphasized the relationship between information structure, intonation, and word order.[11] In the 1960s, Michael Halliday significantly advanced the understanding of theme (topic) within his Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) model.[12]
References
Scholarly Sources
- ^ Weixuan Shi & Chen Yuan, "Theme-Rheme Theory and Coherence of College English Writing", in East African Scholars Journal of Education, Humanities and Literature, vol. 10 no. 2 (2019); passage cited : The theme, or topic, is “that part of an utterance which connects it to the rest of the discourse” (Steedman, 2000, p. 655). In a response to a wh-question, this is unambiguously defined as the part contained in the question (Steedman, 2000, p. 655), as is the case here. The rheme, or comment, is the part of the utterance that advances the theme, or which is predicated. In response to a wh-question, this is the answer to the question; in this case Marcel.
- ^ Michael Gotze, Stephanie Dipper, and Stavros Skopeteas. 2007. Information Structure in Cross-Linguistic Corpora: Annotation Guidelines for Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Information Structure. Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure (ISIS), Working papers of the SFB 632, Vol. 7.
- ^ L. Carlson and D. Marcu, “Discourse tagging reference manual,” ISI Technical Report ISI-TR-545, vol. 54, 2001.
- ^ L. Ermakova and J. Mothe. 2016. Document re-ranking based on topic-comment structure. In X IEEE International Conference RCIS, Grenoble, France, June 1–3, 2016. 1–10.
- ^ D. Bring, Topic and Comment. Cambridge University Press, 2011, three entries for: Patrick Colm Hogan (ed.) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ MAK Halliday (1994). An introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed., Hodder Arnold: London, p. 37
- ^ Cassell, Justine, ed. Embodied conversational agents. MIT press, 2000.
- ^ A. Bouchachia and R. Mittermeir, “A neural cascade architecture for document retrieval,” in Neural Networks, 2003. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on, vol. 3. IEEE, 2003, pp. 1915–1920.
- ^ L. Ermakova, J. Mothe, A. Firsov. A Metric for Sentence Ordering Assessment Based on Topic-Comment Structure, in ACM SIGIR, Tokyo, Japan, 07/08/2017-11/08/2017
- ^ H. Weil, De l’ordre des mots dans les langues anciennes compares aux langues modernes: question de grammaire gnrale. Joubert, 1844.
- ^ V. Mathesius and J. Vachek, A Functional Analysis of Present Day English on a General Linguistic Basis, ser. Janua linguarum : Series practica / Ianua linguarum / Series practica. Mouton, 1975.
- ^ M. A. K. Halliday, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd ed. London: Arnold, 1994.
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References
References
- L. Carlson and D. Marcu, âDiscourse tagging reference manual,â ISI Technical Report ISI-TR-545, vol. 54, 2001.
- L. Ermakova and J. Mothe. 2016. Document re-ranking based on topic-comment structure. In X IEEE International Conference RCIS, Grenoble, France, June 1â3, 2016. 1â10.
- D. Bring, Topic and Comment. Cambridge University Press, 2011, three entries for: Patrick Colm Hogan (ed.) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- MAK Halliday (1994). An introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed., Hodder Arnold: London, p. 37
- A. Bouchachia and R. Mittermeir, âA neural cascade architecture for document retrieval,â in Neural Networks, 2003. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on, vol. 3. IEEE, 2003, pp. 1915â1920.
- L. Ermakova, J. Mothe, A. Firsov. A Metric for Sentence Ordering Assessment Based on Topic-Comment. Structure, in ACM SIGIR, Tokyo, Japan, 07/08/2017-11/08/2017
- H. Weil, De lâordre des mots dans les langues anciennes compares aux langues modernes: question de grammaire gnrale. Joubert, 1844.
- V. Mathesius and J. Vachek, A Functional Analysis of Present Day English on a General Linguistic Basis, ser. Janua linguarum : Series practica / Ianua linguarum / Series practica. Mouton, 1975.
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