topicmarking

Topic marking is a grammatical feature in which the element of a sentence that serves as the main point of discourse—the topic—is marked within the clause. This topic is not necessarily the same as the grammatical subject; it is the entity the statement is about, and it often cues the information structure, such as givenness, focus, or contrast.

In languages with explicit topic marking, a particle or clitic attaches to the topic word. Japanese is a well-known example, where the particle wa marks the topic: Watashi wa ringo o taberu, meaning “As for me, I eat apples.” The topic marker signals that the ensuing comment is about the topic rather than about the broader grammatical subject. Korean marks topics with 은/는; for example, 나는 사과를 먹는다 can be understood as “As for me, I eat an apple,” with the topic marker emphasizing the discourse focus on the topic.

Topic marking often serves functions in information structure such as signaling known versus new information, placing emphasis on a particular entity, or creating a contrast between topics. It is frequently distinct from subject marking, though in some languages the same form can interact with both roles depending on context. In addition, topic marking interacts with word order and prosody; in many topic-prominent languages, topics may be fronted or marked by corresponding intonation rather than relying solely on a fixed syntactic position.

Cross-linguistically, topic marking shows substantial variation. Some languages rely heavily on explicit particles, while others primarily use discourse context, intonation, or syntactic arrangement to establish the topic. Topic marking is a key area of study in typology and discourse analysis, relating to broader notions of focus, givenness, and information structure.