Topic-prominent language 主題優勢語言 (主题优势语言)

zhǔtí yōushì yǔyán · from English

What is a topic-prominent language?

A topic-prominent language organises sentences around a topic (what we are talking about) rather than a grammatical subject, as Chinese, Japanese and Korean do.

Linguists Charles Li and Sandra Thompson popularised the distinction in 1976. Japanese marks topics with は wa and Korean with 은/는, while Mandarin simply fronts the topic. Sentences like the elephant, its nose is long are normal and grammatical.

Examples

象は鼻が長い zō wa hana ga nagai (as for elephants, the nose is long); 這本書我看過了 zhè běn shū wǒ kànguò le (this book, I have read); 저는 커피요 jeoneun keopiyo (as for me, coffee)

Kungfucius says: As for this sentence, the topic is the topic.