Subject and topic: [papers]

Frontmatter Halftitle Publisher note Title Copyright Contents List of Participants Preface Acknowledgement 1. On the notion of subject in ergative languages (Anderson) 2. Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, and point of view (Chafe) [Introduction] Givenness Contrastiveness Definiteness Subjects Topics, English Style Topics, Chinese Style Topics as Premature Subjects Antitopics Point of View or Empathy 3. On the subject of two passives in Indonesian (Chung) 0. Bach has proposed that 1. Bahasa Indonesia is an SVO 2. A typical syntactic characteristic 2.1 To begin with, let us consider 2.2 Further evidence that Object Preposing 3. Another syntactic characteristic 4. A third syntactic characteristic of passives 5. A fourth syntactic characteristic of passives A fifth syntactic characteristic of passives 7. Finally, passives can be distinguished 8. The evidence of the preceding 9. In a recent paper, Langacker and Munro 10. Perlmutter and Postal propose 11. Given the results of the preceding [Conclusion] Notes 1–4 5–8 9–12 13–15 16–20 4. Properties of basic and derived subjects in Jacaltec (Craig) 0. Introduction Properties of Basic Subjects 1. Coding Properties 1.1 Position 1.2 Case Marking and verb agreement 1.3 Disambiguation 2. Behavior Properties 2.1 Reflexivization 2.2 Equi-NP Deletion 2.3 Causative collapsing 3. Semantic properties 3.1 Selectional rules 3.2 Impersonal transitive constructions 3.3 Surface structure pronouns 4 Summary of properties of Basic Subjects Properties of derived subjects 1. Passive Subjects 1.1 Passive in Jacaltec 1.2 Properties of passive subjects 2 Promoted Subjects 3 Instrumental Subjects 3.1 Subjectivization of instrumentals 3.2 Properties of instrumental subjects 4 Indirect Causative Agents 4.1 Causative agents 4.2 Properties of indirect causative agents 5 Summary of Properties of Derived Subjects Conclusions Notes 5. The manifestation of subject, object, and topic in the American Sign Language (Friedman) Introduction Sociolinguistic situation Verb Classes in ASL Word order in ASL Summary: distinguishing subject and object in ASL Discourse situation Topic, comment, and topicalization in ASL Conclusion Notes 6. Topic, Pronoun and grammatical agreement (Givón) 1. Introduction 2. The Implicational Hierarchy 3. Anaphoric Pronouns and Topic-Shift in Discourse 4. The Rise of Subject Agreement 5. The Rise of Object Agreement 6. Dative vs. Accusative Object Agreement 7. Personal Pronouns and the Topic Hierarchy 8. The Function of Grammatical Agreement 8.1 Reference-topic related functions 8.2 Marking the verb-type 8.3 Case marking 8.4 Differentiation between main and subordinate clause 8.5 Selectional restrictions and the hierarchy of semantic features 9. Diachronic Change in Grammatical Agreement 9.1 Existential expressions 9.2 Possession 9.3 Subject agreement/pronouns as passive markers 9.4 Syntactic change and verb agreement 9.4.1 Agreement change in Aramaic 9.4.2 The Semitic perfect conjugation 9.4.3 The Indo-European suffixal conjugation 10. Conclusion Notes 1–22 23–42 43–53 7. Embedded topic in French (Hyman & Zimmer) 0 Introduction 1 Topic and Word Order 2 Topic and Passive 3 Topic and Experiential Verbs Notes 1–4 5–7 8–9 Relativization and topicalization in Hittite (Justus) 8. Relativization and topicalization in Hittite (Justus) 1 1.0 1.1 1.2 2 2.0 2.0.1 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.3 2.3.1 3 3.0 3.0.1 3.0.2 3.1 3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.3 3.3.1 3.3.1.1 3.3.2 3.3.3 3.3.3.1 3.3.3.3 3.3.4 4 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.4.1 4.2.4.2 4.3 4.3.1 5 5.0 5.1 5.2 Notes 1–2 3–5 6–10 11–16 17–24 9. Remarkable subjects in Malagasy (Keenan) I. Grammatical Properties of Subjects in Malagasy 1. Surface syntactic properties of subjects 1.1 Position 1.2 Verb agreement 1.3 Case marking 1.4 Particle placements 1.5 Surface semantically based properties of subjects 1.5.1 Definiteness 1.5.2 Relative scope 1.5.3 Dummies 2. Transformational properties of subjects 2.1 Advancement transformations 2.1.1 The four voices 2.1.2 The concept of passive in Malagasy 2.1.3 The active voice is grammatically the most basic 2.1.4 Formulating the advancement transformations 2.2 Major movement transformations 2.2.1 Relative clauses 2.2.2 Whatever-clauses 2.2.3 Existential sentences 2.2.4 Cleft Sentences 2.2.5 NP-questions 2.3 Topicalization transformations 2.4 Coreferential deletions 2.5 Raising 2.5.1 Raising to Object 2.5.2 Raising to Subject 2.5.3 Possessor Raising II. Malagasy Compared with Philippine Languages III. Subject Prominence vs. Topic Prominence in Malagasy 1. General properties of topic prominent languages 2. Specific properties of topic NPs 2.1 Positive properties 2.2 Negative properties Notes 1–4 5 6–8 9 10. Towards a universal definition of “subject” (Keenan) I The Problem II.0 Defining “Subject of” II.1 The Definition of Basic-Sentence in a Language II.2 Some General Properties of Basic Sentences II.3 Characteristic Properties of Basic Subjects II.3.1 The Subject Properties List A. Autonomy Properties 1. Independent Existence 2. Indispensability 3. Autonomous Reference 3.1 [stipulated coreference] 3.2 [switch reference] 3.3 [verb agreement] 3.4 [stipulated coreference across clause boundaries] 3.5 Absolute Reference 3.6 Presupposed Reference 3.7 Metaphoric Idioms 3.8 Topic 3.9 “Highly referential” NPs 3.10 [subjects are targets of advancement] 3.11 [basic subjects have wider scope] 3.12 [leftmost] 3.13 [relativized, questioned, clefted] 3.14 [possessors relativized, questioned, clefted] 3.15 [personal pronoun] 3.16 [raising] 3.17 [emphatic pronoun] 3.18 [floating quantifiers] B. Case Marking Properties C. Semantic Role D. Immediate Dominance III.0 The Utility of a Multi-Factor Concept of “Subject” III.1 The Promotion to Subject Hierarchy III.2 The Coding Hierarchy III.3 A second prediction III.4 Some Possible Counter Examples IV.0 Conclusion 11. Topic as a discourse notion: A study of topic in the conversations of children and adults (Ochs Keenan & Schieffelin) I. Orientation and Goals II. Data Base III. Defining Discourse Structure [IV. Defining Discourse Topic] IV.A Defining Discourse Topic IV.B Determining the Question of Immediate Concern IV.B.1 Non-verbal Context IV.B.2 The Verbal Context IV.B.3 ‘Breaking and Entering’ V. The Model V.A Prerequisites for Establishing a Discourse Topic V.B How to Secure the Attention of the Hearer V.C On Articulating Utterances for the Listener V.D On Identifying Referents in the Discourse Topic V.D.1 How to Locate a Referent in Physical Space V.D.2 How to Locate a Referent in Memory V.D.3 Identifying Referents and Old Information V.E Identifying the Discourse Topic Proposition VI. Implications for the Notion of Competence in Child Language VI.B Comprehension VIII. Why Discourse Topic? Notes 1–8 9–11 12. On the subjectless “pseudo-passive” in Standard Dutch and the semantics of background agents (Kirsner) 1. Introduction 2. “True” Passive and “Pseudo-Passive” 2.1 Sketch of a unitary analysis 2.2 Relative and absolute backgrounding 3. Pseudo-Passive Versus Active: Consequences of Backgrounding 3.1 Agentless pseudo-passives 3.2 Full pseudo-passives 3.2.1 The direct exploitation of backgrounding 3.2.2 The indirect exploitation of backgrounding 4. Summary and Conclusion Notes 1–5 6–9 10–22 23–30 31 13. Subject, theme, and the speaker’s empathy – A reexamination of relativization phenomena (Kuno) 1. Theme and Relativization 2. Subject and Relativization 3. The Speaker’s Empathy and Relativization 4. Conclusion 14. From topic to subject in Indo-European (Lehmann) 15. Subject and topic: A new typology of language (Li & Thompson) I. Introduction II. Subject vs. Topic (a) Definite (b) Selectional relations (c) Verb determines “Subject” but not “Topic” (d) Functional role (e) Verb-agreement (f) Sentence-initial position (g) Grammatical processes III. Characteristics of Topic-Prominent Languages (a) Surface coding (b) The passive construction (c) “Dummy” subjects (d) “Double subject” (e) Controlling co-reference (f) V-final languages (g) Constraints on topic constituent (h) Basicness of topic-comment sentences IV. On the Basicness of Topic-Comment Sentences in Tp Languages (a) Definition of “basic” sentence (b) Lisu (1) Grammatical relations (2) Reflexive (c) Mandarin (d) The “double subject” construction (e) Distribution V. The Typology and Some Diachronic Implications Notes 1–5 6–9 10–13 14–16 16. The subject in Philippine languages: Topic, actor, actor-topic, or none of the above? (Schachter) 0 Introduction 1 Characteristic Sentence Structures 2 The Topic as Subject: Arguments For 3 The Topic as Subject: Arguments Against 4 The Actor as Subject: Arguments For 5 The Actor as Subject: Arguments Against 6 The Actor-Topic as Primary Subject: Arguments For 7 The Actor-Topic as Primary Subject: Arguments Against 8 Conclusion Notes 1–5 6–12 17. On the universality of subject: The Ilocano case (Schwartz) 0. Assumptions and Thesis 1. Preliminaries: the Ilocano Sentence 2. Definiteness and Referentiality 3. Reflexivization as a Subject-Property 4. Relative Clause Formation 5. Ti-Nominalization and Focus 6. “Promotion” to Subject 7. The Marked Status of Non-APE Focus 8. “Topic” in Ilocano 9. Summary 18. Subject properties in the North Russian passive (Timberlake) 1. [Identifying the subject in NR passives] 2. [Properties of the CSR passive and NR passive] 3. [Properties of the NR passive] 4. Case, agreement 5. Deletion 6. Reflexivization 7. Topic properties 8. [Diachronic stability] 9. [Unusual distribution of subject properties] 10. [Degree of promotion and degree of demotion] [10.1 Deletion] [10.2 Reflexivization] [10.3 Topic properties] [10.4 Animacy] 11. [Summary] Notes 1–7 8–12 13–16 References A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z