Onderwerp

Onderwerp is a Dutch noun meaning topic, subject, or matter of discussion. It can refer to what a text or conversation is about, or to the grammatical subject of a sentence. The word is used across disciplines, including linguistics, rhetoric, education, and information organization.

In Dutch grammar, het onderwerp often corresponds to the syntactic subject, the noun phrase that agrees with the finite verb in person and number. For example: "De kat slaapt" — "de kat" is het onderwerp. In many sentences the onderwerp is explicit, but in impersonal constructions or with expletive subjects like "het" or "er," the syntactic subject may be different from the semantic topic.

In discourse analysis, the term kan verwijzen to the topic of discourse, the element that the comment is about. The topic may be marked by intonation, word order, or discourse particles, and it does not always align with the grammatical subject.

In libraries and education, onderwerp is used as a subject heading in catalogs to index items by theme. In classroom planning, it denotes the theme of a lesson or unit. The term is often contrasted with thema or kwestie, which can carry nuances of emphasis or issue rather than a specific object.