Topic Prominence
Résumé
We assimilate the typological feature of topic prominence to established treatments of the left periphery. Upon close scrutiny, East Asian languages labeled as topic-prominent turn out to display important differences among themselves as to the fine structure of the left periphery. In Japanese and Korean, the A-domain extends higher than in Chinese, to include a fused FocusP/FiniteP projection. So-called topic-prominent languages also show differences as to what DP properties are associated with material overtly realized in topic position. Descriptive properties associated with topic prominence include (1) obligatoriness of topics, (2) null topics, (3) overt spell-out of the head of TopicP, (4) wh in situ, (5) obligatory topicalization of generic DPs, (6) multiple topics, and (7) free ordering of argument and adjunct topics. However, all or most of these features can be found in non-East Asian languages with an active left periphery, including full and residual V2 languages. The salient feature of the languages traditionally labeled topic-prominent is that they do not fill the functional head of the Topic projection by movement; if at all, this head is filled via External Merge (base generation) of topic particles.
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