Topicfronting

Topic fronting, also known as topicalization, is a discourse and syntactic strategy in which a constituent of a sentence is moved to the leftmost position to mark it as the topic of the utterance. The fronted material signals what the sentence is about and typically invites a comment or contrast on that topic. The rest of the sentence then provides the comment or predication about the topic.

In English, topic fronting commonly takes the form of a fronted noun phrase or prepositional phrase. Examples include That book, I read last night, or As for the weather, it’s terrible today. The fronted element is often given or known in the discourse, and the remaining clause states something about it. Topic fronting is frequently used to introduce a topic, reintroduce it after a digression, or create contrast with other potential topics.

Topic fronting interacts with information structure, informing how given versus new information is organized in discourse. It is related to, but distinct from, left dislocation and other devices that manage topic and focus. While it can align with focus in some contexts, its primary function is signaling the topic rather than emphasizing a particular part of the predicate.

Cross-linguistically, the availability and form of topic fronting vary. Some languages mark topic more productivity or obligatorily, while in others, English uses it relatively sparingly, typically in formal, literary, or carefully staged speech. See also topicalization, left dislocation, and information structure.