Topic Prominence

要旨

Abstract We assimilate the typological feature of topic prominence to established treatments of the left periphery. East Asian languages grouped together as topic‐prominent turn out to display important differences. In Japanese and Korean, the A‐domain extends higher than in Chinese, to include a fused FocusP/FiniteP projection. Descriptive properties sometimes associated with topic prominence include (1) obligatoriness of topics, (2) null topics, (3) overt spell‐out of the head of TopicP, (4) wh in situ, (5) obligatory topicalization of generic DPs, (6) multiple topics, and (7) free ordering of argument and adjunct topics. However, all or most of these features can be found in non‐East Asian languages with an active left periphery, including full and residual V2 languages. The salient feature of the languages traditionally labeled topic‐prominent is that they do not fill the functional head of the Topic projection by movement; if at all, this head is filled by topic particles.

主題