2min chapter

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Conlangery #53: Topicalization

Conlangery Podcast

CHAPTER

Is Topicalization Working in Chinese?

I speak Chinese and I understand a topic fronting that occurs in Chinese, but I just can't think of examples right off the top of my head easily. You have to have something like in Williams jigarun example, I expect there to be a person to point to, not, not literally point to, but to refer that. It's very hard to explain. Part of the problem is it really seems like topic prominence and subject prominence is, as always, part of a continuum where every language follows its own path. Yeah. When I was taking Chinese, we learned how to topicalize by osmosis. We were simply exposed to it enough and we got braver and

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