Abstract
Topicalization refers to the sentence-initial placement of constituents other than the subject and is often listed as a non-canonical construction [cf. Ward, Gregory, Betty J. Birner and Rodney Huddleston (2002). “Information Packaging.” Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, eds. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1363–1447.]. In this paper, tokens of topicalization in the direct conversations in the International Corpus of English for Hong Kong and India and, for comparison, Great Britain are analysed. In order to find out if topicalization is a contact-induced feature, typological profiles with regard to topic-prominence [Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson (1976). “Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language.” Charles N. Li, ed. Subject and Topic. New York: Academic Press, 457–489.] are created for three Indo-Aryan, three Dravidian and two Sinitic languages. I suggest that the low frequencies of topicalization in Hong Kong English and the high frequencies of topicalization in Indian English are primarily due to differences in intensity of contact [Thomason, Sarah G. (2001). Language Contact. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.] and variety development [Schneider, Edgar W. (2007). Postcolonial English. Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.]. Typological interference at the level of information structure is assumed to only come to the fore in further developed varieties and after prolonged contact.
Works Cited
2011 Population Census. Main Report: Volume I. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: Census and Statistics Department.Suche in Google Scholar
Annamalai, E. and Sanford B. Steever (1998). “Modern Tamil.” Sanford B. Steever, ed. The Dravidian Languages. London: Routledge, 100–128.10.4324/9781315722580-4Suche in Google Scholar
Biewer, Carolin (2015). South Pacific Englishes. A Sociolinguistic and Morphosyntactic Profile of Fiji English, Samoan English and Cook Islands English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/veaw.g52Suche in Google Scholar
Birner, Betty J. and Gregory Ward (1998). Information Status and Noncanonical Word Order in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.40Suche in Google Scholar
Birner, Betty J. and Gregory Ward (2009). “Information Structure and Syntactic Structure.” Language and Linguistics Compass 3.4: 1167–1187.10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00146.xSuche in Google Scholar
Bolton, Kingsley (2000). “The Sociolinguistics of Hong Kong and the Space for Hong Kong English.” World Englishes 19.3: 265–285.10.1111/1467-971X.00179Suche in Google Scholar
Callies, Marcus (2009). Information Highlighting in Advanced Learner English. The Syntax-Pragmatics Interface in Second Language Acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.186Suche in Google Scholar
Chen, Rong (2003). English Inversion. A Ground-before-Figure Construction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110895100Suche in Google Scholar
Cheng, Lisa L.-S. and Rynt Sybesma (2015). “Mandarin.” Tibor Kiss and Artemis Alexiadou, eds. Syntax: Theory and Analysis. An International Handbook. Volume 3. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1518–1559.10.1017/S0008413100011865Suche in Google Scholar
Conners, Thomas J. and Dustin Chacón (2015). “Syntax.” Anne Boyle David, Thomas J. Conners and Dustin Chacón, eds. Descriptive Grammar of Bangla. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 249–302.10.1515/9781614512295-014Suche in Google Scholar
Dasgupta, Probal (2003). “Bangla.” George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain, eds. The Indo-Aryan Languages. London: Routledge, 351–390.Suche in Google Scholar
Dhongde, Ramesh Vaman and Kashi Wali (2009). Marathi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/loall.13Suche in Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy (1979). On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Hendricks, Henriëtte (2003). “Using Nouns for Reference Maintenance: A Seeming Contradiction in L2 Discourse.” Anna Giacalone Ramat, ed. Typology and Second Language Acquisition. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 291–326.10.1515/9783110891249.291Suche in Google Scholar
Hundt, Marianne (2015). “World Englishes.” Douglas Biber and Randi Reppen, eds. The Cambridge Handbook of English Corpus Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 381–400.10.1017/CBO9781139764377.022Suche in Google Scholar
Jensen, Hans (1969). Grammatik der kanaresischen Schriftsprache. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie.Suche in Google Scholar
Junghare, Indira Y. (1988). “Topic-Prominence and Zero NP-Anaphora.” M. A. Jazayery and W. Winter, eds. Languages & Cultures: Studies in Honour of Edgar C. Polomé. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 309–327.10.1515/9783110864359.309Suche in Google Scholar
Kachru, Yamuna (2006). Hindi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/loall.12Suche in Google Scholar
Kausen, Ernst (2013). Die Sprachfamilien der Welt. Teil 1: Europa und Asien. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Suche in Google Scholar
Killingley, Siew-Yue (1993). Cantonese. München: Lincom Europa.Suche in Google Scholar
Krishnamurti, Bh. (1998). “Telugu.” Sanford B. Steever, ed. The Dravidian Languages. London: Routledge, 202–240.10.4324/9781315722580-10Suche in Google Scholar
Lange, Claudia (2012). The Syntax of Spoken Indian English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/veaw.g45Suche in Google Scholar
Lehmann, Thomas (1989). A Grammar of Modern Tamil. Pondicherry: Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture.Suche in Google Scholar
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2016). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Nineteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.Suche in Google Scholar
Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson (1976). “Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language.” Charles N. Li, ed. Subject and Topic. New York: Academic Press, 457–489.Suche in Google Scholar
Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson (1981). Mandarin Chinese. A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520352858Suche in Google Scholar
Lin, Hua (2001). A Grammar of Mandarin Chinese. München: Lincom Europa.Suche in Google Scholar
Matras, Yaron (2009). Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511809873Suche in Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (1992). English in Language Shift. The History, Structure and Sociolinguistics of South African Indian English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511597893Suche in Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (1997). “A Sociolinguistic Study of Topicalisation Phenomena in South African Black English.” Edgar W. Schneider, ed. Englishes Around the World Volume 2: Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australasia. Studies in Honour of Manfred Görlach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 119–140.10.1075/veaw.g19.12mesSuche in Google Scholar
Pandharipande, Rajeshwari V. (1997). Marathi. London: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Paul, Waltraud (2015). New Perspectives on Chinese Syntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110338775Suche in Google Scholar
Plag, Ingo (2003). Word-Formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511841323Suche in Google Scholar
Prince, Ellen F. (1992). “The ZPG Letter: Subjects, Definiteness, and Information Status.” William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson, eds. Discourse Description. Diverse Linguistic Analyses of a Fund-Raising Text. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 295–326.10.1075/pbns.16.12priSuche in Google Scholar
Reinhart, Tanya (1981). “Pragmatics and Linguistics: An Analysis of Sentence Topics.” Philosophica 27.1: 53–94.10.21825/philosophica.82606Suche in Google Scholar
Ross, Claudia and Jing-heng Sheng Ma (2006). Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar. A Practical Guide. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203799932Suche in Google Scholar
Schiffman, Harold F. (1983). A Reference Grammar of Spoken Kannada. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Schlobinski, Peter and Stephan Schütze-Coburn (1992). “On the Topic of Topic and Topic Continuity.” Linguistics 30: 89–121.10.1515/ling.1992.30.1.89Suche in Google Scholar
Schmidt, Ruth Laila (2003). “Urdu.” George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain, eds. The Indo-Aryan Languages. London: Routledge, 286–350.Suche in Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. (2004). “How to Trace Structural Nativization: Particle Verbs in World Englishes.” World Englishes 23.2: 227–249.10.1111/j.0883-2919.2004.00348.xSuche in Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. (2007). Postcolonial English. Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511618901Suche in Google Scholar
Setter, Jane, Cathy S. P. Wong and Brian H. S. Chan (2010). Hong Kong English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.10.1515/9780748635979Suche in Google Scholar
Shapiro, Michael C. (2003). “Hindi.” George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain, eds. The Indo-Aryan Languages. London: Routledge, 250–285.Suche in Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi (1999). “Dative Subject Constructions Twenty-Two Years Later.” Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 29.2: 45–76.Suche in Google Scholar
Shyu, Shu-Ing (2014). “Topic and Focus.” C.-T. James Huang, Y.-H. Audrey Li and Andrew Simpson, eds. The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 100–125.10.1002/9781118584552.ch5Suche in Google Scholar
Sridhar, S. N. (1990). Kannada: Descriptive Grammar. London: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Subbarao, Karumuri V. (2004). “Non-nominative Subjects in Telugu.” Peri Bashkararao and Karumuri V. Subbarao, eds. Non-nominative Subjects. Vol. 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 161–196.10.1075/tsl.61.10subSuche in Google Scholar
Sun, Chaofen (2006). Chinese: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511755019Suche in Google Scholar
The ICE Project. International Corpus of English. <http://ice-corpora.net/ice/index.htm>. (accessed September 2016).Suche in Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah G. (2001). Language Contact. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah G. and Terrence Kaufman (1988). Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520912793Suche in Google Scholar
Thompson, Hanne-Ruth (2012). Bengali. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/loall.18Suche in Google Scholar
Vallduví, Enric (1992). The Informational Component. New York: Garland.Suche in Google Scholar
Ward, Gregory (1988). The Semantics and Pragmatics of Preposing. New York: Garland Publishing.Suche in Google Scholar
Ward, Gregory and Betty J. Birner (2001). “Discourse and Information Structure.” Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen and Heidi E. Hamilton, eds. The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 119–137.10.1002/9780470753460.ch7Suche in Google Scholar
Ward, Gregory and Betty J. Birner (2004). “Information Structure and Non-canonical Syntax.” Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward, eds. The Handbook of Pragmatics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 153–174.10.1002/9780470756959.ch7Suche in Google Scholar
Ward, Gregory and Betty J. Birner (2011). “Discourse Effects and Word Order Variation.” Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger and Paul Portner, eds. Semantics. An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1934–1963.10.1515/9783110255072.1934Suche in Google Scholar
Ward, Gregory, Betty J. Birner and Rodney Huddleston (2002). “Information Packaging.” Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, eds. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1363–1447.10.1017/9781316423530.017Suche in Google Scholar
Welke, Klaus (1992). Funktionale Satzperspektive. Ansätze und Probleme der funktionalen Grammatik. Münster: Nodius Publikationen.Suche in Google Scholar
Winkle, Claudia (2015). Non-canonical Structures, They Use them Differently. Information Packaging in Spoken Varieties of English. Freiburg: Universitätsbibliothek. <https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/fedora/objects/freidok:10600/datastreams/FILE1/content> (January 29, 2017).Suche in Google Scholar
Yip, Virginia and Stephen Matthews (2000). Basic Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook. London: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Yip, Virginia and Stephen Matthews (2011). Cantonese. A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Zvelebil, Kamil V. (1990). Dravidian Linguistics. An Introduction. Pondicherry: Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture.Suche in Google Scholar
©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Non-Canonical Grammar!?
- Articles
- “Hard to Beat Dickens’ Characters”: Non-Canonical Syntax in Evaluative Texts
- Non-Canonical Syntax in South Asian Varieties of English: A Corpus-Based Pilot Study on Fronting
- Typological Interference in Information Structure: The Case of Topicalization in Asia
- Non-Canonical Speech Acts in the History of English
- Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda – Non-Canonical Forms on the Move?
- Chosen
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Non-Canonical Grammar!?
- Articles
- “Hard to Beat Dickens’ Characters”: Non-Canonical Syntax in Evaluative Texts
- Non-Canonical Syntax in South Asian Varieties of English: A Corpus-Based Pilot Study on Fronting
- Typological Interference in Information Structure: The Case of Topicalization in Asia
- Non-Canonical Speech Acts in the History of English
- Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda – Non-Canonical Forms on the Move?
- Chosen