Nounfronted

Nounfronted is a linguistic term describing a noun phrase that appears at the left edge of a clause, preceding the finite verb, in order to foreground or topicalize the noun. The term is not widely standardized in all grammars, but it is used in discussions of information structure and discourse pragmatics to refer to this specific fronting of a noun rather than a fronting of the entire clause.

Function and usage: Nounfronting serves to mark the noun as given, known, or contrastive within the discourse. It often aligns with a focus or topic theme and is typically accompanied by a pause or particular intonation. While English often relies on subject-first arrangements, non-subject nounfronting can appear in contexts where emphasis is desired or when the speaker is reorienting the topic of discussion. Examples include sentences like "That book, I read yesterday," or "A storm at sea, the crew feared." In such cases the fronted noun phrase is followed by a continuation that clarifies the predicate.

Cross-linguistic perspective: Nounfronting is more readily available in languages with flexible word order or explicit topic-fronting strategies. In English, it tends to be marked by prosody and context rather than by rigid syntactic rules, and it is less productive than subject-fronting in many varieties.

Relation to related phenomena: Nounfronting is related to topicalization and left-dislocation and is distinct from subject-fronting or other syntactic movements driven by structure rather than discourse function.

See also: topicalization, fronting, left-dislocation.