De la notion de détachement topical à celle de constituant thématique extrapropositionnel

Abstract

De la notion de détachement topical à celle de constituant thématique extrapropositionnel 1. Nous employons indifféremment les termes thème et topic. 2. Au sens de proposition ici.

Extra-sentential elements, prosodic restructuring, and information structure. a study of clitic-left dislocation in spontaneous French

“…We coded as continuous topic a referent that is already the topic of the current discourse, for instance the topic of an answer to a question (cf. a ratified topic in [23], and a given topic in [10]). We coded as introduced topic a referent that is introduced in the preceding utterance as the upcoming topic (see the discussion on 'topic promotion' in [22]).…”

“…In other utterances of our corpus, the topic referent is inferable from another referent because semantically related to it (cf. an accessible topic in [22]'s Topic Accessibility Scale, and a sub-topic in [10]). We call this an inferable topic ((5)).…”

“…(6) là Aix-en-Provence, j'aime beaucoup mais euh mes racines elles sont à Grenoble "Aix-en-Provence I like very much but um, as for my roots, they are in Grenoble" These three topic types were grouped in the same class B of semi-active topics (borrowing from [10]'s terminology). They do not have an antecedent with identical reference which is the topic of the current discourse, so they are not active in the speakers' mind at the moment of the utterance; however, they are indirectly accessible from the current discourse, so they are not totally unexpected topics.…”

“…As for clitic-left dislocations, some scholars have made the hypothesis that the prosodic variation of the boundary degree of the dislocated NP could be explained in pragmatic terms (see e.g. [3], [10]- [12]). According to these authors, the degree of strength of the pitch accent associated with the last syllable of the NP would depend on the activation status of the referent denoted by the NP in discourse.…”

Prosody and cognitive accessibility in left-detached topics: lessons from Nigerian Pidgin

“…These left-detached topics can be categorized according to their cognitive accessibility, i.e., the degree to which they are present in the mental representation of the interlocutor at the time of their utterance [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. Prior research shows that elements can be highlighted by a melodic prominence if they introduce information or are more informative [9], [10], leading us to speculate that different topic categories are characterized by varying intonational features.…”