Non-referential topical phrases in Romanian and the theory of topicality

• Published in: Bucharest working papers in linguistics Vol. XIX; no. 1; pp. 35 - 66
• Main Author: Ion Giurgea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti 01-06-2017
• Subjects: aboutness; classified according to the relation they entertain with the previous sentences and the discourse topic. Furthermore; discourse and sentence topics; I discuss another function of sentence topics; Romanian; topicalization
• EISSN: 2069-9239

I discuss various theories of sentence topics against the background of attested examples of topicalization in Romanian. I argue that non-referential topical phrases constitute a problem for the concept of aboutness topic proposed by Reinhart (1981) and can better be accounted for in a theory where topicalized constituents are indicators of the discourse topic (von Fintel 1994). I examine various types of topicalized constituents, classified according to the relation they entertain with the previous sentences and the discourse topic. Furthermore, I discuss another function of sentence topics, which can be characterized independently of discourse relations: that of anchoring the new information in the common ground. I suggest a way in which this function can be subsumed under the general function of indicating discourse-topic dynamics.