Editing Topic and comment (section)

== Realization of topic–comment ==
Different languages mark topics in different ways. Distinct intonation and word-order are the most common means. The tendency to place topicalized constituents sentence-initially ("topic fronting") is widespread. Topic fronting refers to placing the topic at the beginning
of a clause regardless of whether it is marked or not.<ref>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.</ref> Again, linguists disagree on many details.

Languages often show different kinds of grammar for sentences that introduce new topics and those that continue discussing previously established topics.

When a sentence continues discussing a previously established topic, it is likely to use pronouns to refer to the topic. Such topics tend to be subjects.  In many languages, pronouns referring to previously established topics will show [[pro-drop]].

=== In English ===
In English the topic/theme comes first in the clause, and is typically marked out by intonation as well.<ref>MAK Halliday (1994). ''An introduction to functional grammar'', 2nd ed., Hodder Arnold: London, p. 37</ref>

English is quite capable of using a topic-prominent formulation instead of a subject-prominent formulation when context makes it desirable for one reason or another. A typical pattern for doing so is opening with [[wikt:Thesaurus:about|a class of prepositions such as: ''as for'', ''as regards'', ''regarding'', ''concerning'', ''respecting'', ''on'', ''re'', and others]]. [[Pedagogy|Pedagogically]] or [[rhetorical modes#Exposition|expositorily]] this approach has value especially when the speaker knows that they need to [[attention management|lead the listener's attention]] from one topic to another in a deftly efficient manner, sometimes actively avoiding misplacement of the focus of attention from moment to moment. But whereas topic-prominent languages might use this approach by default or obligately, in subject-prominent ones such as English it is merely an option that often is not invoked.

=== In other languages===
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2016}}
* In [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Korean language|Korean]], the topic is usually marked with a [[postposition]] such as {{Nihongo||は|-wa}} or 는/은, ''-(n)eun'' respectively, which comes after the noun or phrase that is being topicalized.
* In [[Côte d'Ivoire]] [[French language|French]], the topic is marked by the postposition "là". The topic can be, but is not necessarily a noun or a nominal group, for example: « Voiture-là est jolie deh » ("That car is pretty"); « Aujourd'hui-là il fait chaud » ("It's hot on that day"); « Pour toi-là n'est pas comme pour moi hein » ("For you it's not the same as for me, huh"); and « Nous qui sommes ici-là, on attend ça seulement » ("We who are here, we are waiting for that only").
* So-called [[free word order]] languages such as [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Czech language|Czech]], and to some certain extent [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[German language|German]], use word order as the primary means, and the topic usually precedes the focus. For example, in some [[Slavic languages]] such as Czech and Russian, both orders are possible. The order with the comment sentence-initial is referred to as ''subjective'' ([[Vilém Mathesius]] invented the term and opposed it to ''objective'') and expresses certain emotional involvement.  The two orders are distinguished by intonation.
* In [[Modern Hebrew]], a topic may follow its comment. For example, the syntactic subject of this sentence is an expletive זה ("ze", lit. "this"):
{{fs interlinear|lang=he|indent=3
| זה מאד מענין הספר הזה
| ze meʾod meʿanyen ha-sefer ha-ze
| this very interesting book this
| "This book is very interesting."}}
* In [[American Sign Language#Topic and main clauses|American Sign Language]], a topic can be declared at the beginning of a sentence (indicated by raised eyebrows and head tilt) describing the referent, and the rest of the sentence describes what happens to that referent.