Nounplustopic

Nounplustopic is a theoretical construct used in discourse and linguistic analysis to pair a noun with an explicit discourse topic. It describes how a noun phrase relates to the topic of conversation and may signal its information status, such as being new, given, or in focus within a text.

In practical use, a nounplustopic unit consists of a noun and a topic label that marks its role in the current topic. For example, the noun 'dog' with the topic 'pets in the city' represents a unit linking the referent to the ongoing discussion of urban pets. In sentences, this linkage can guide interpretation of emphasis or focus, as in 'The dog, a common urban pet, waits by the park' where the noun aligns with the topic of city life and pet ownership.

Applications include linguistic research on information structure, discourse parsing in natural language processing, and topic-aware text summarization or search. Annotated corpora using nounplustopic units can help models track referents across topics and improve coherence analyses.

Limitations include a lack of standardized definition and cross-language variability. The concept overlaps with related ideas such as theme and rheme or given-new information, and its usefulness depends on consistent annotation and clear guidelines. As such, nounplustopic remains a descriptive tool rather than a universal framework.