A Contrastive Study Of Topicalization In English And Chinese: In The Perspective Of Pragmatics

Topicalization, or fronted theme, refers to certain sentence constituent that moves to the initial position and leaves a trace in the original place. It is derived by means of pragmatic reordering device in re-encoding information in communication, thus topicalization is the alternative process of pragmatic constituent. It is noteworthy that in China most of the studies on topicalization were restricted to the isolated sentences and rarely combined with context. Besides that, studies in this field were primarily carried out from the perspective of information structure.Since 1980s and 1990s, as an independent linguistic discipline, pragmatics has developed rapidly. Among previous studies of pragmatics, most researchers regard pragmatics as a sub-discipline of linguistics. Pragmatics, phonology, syntax and semantics are all component disciplines of linguistics and each of those is related to a specific unit of analysis: deixis, presupposition, conversational implicature, speech act, conversational analysis, etc and the task of pragmatics is to study these conversational structures dynamically. But Belgium General Secretary of International Pragmatic Association Verschueren in his book Understanding Pragmatics (1999) has put forward the theory of pragmatic perspective on language, with the understanding that language use is a cognitively, socially and culturally conditioned form of behavior. The pragmatic perspective explains the idea of pragmatics as a general functional perspective on language through the consideration of the full complexity of language use. The core theory of pragmatic perspective is adaptation theory. Language allows its users to make negotiable choices and appropriate adaptations among the items available so as to realize communicative intentions. The realization of this process is dependent on characteristics of variability, negotiability and adaptability of language.Since 1980s more and more scholars have realized the close relationshipbetween syntax and pragmatics. Most scholars think that syntax and pragmatics are inseparable and they are interdependent and interactive. Language provides items for people's choices, but in actual use it is pragmatic factors that determine the choice of certain sentence pattern. Pragmatic factors determine how to choose sentence structures and what kind of sentence structures are chosen. Based on Verschueren's pragmatic perspective, the thesis attempts to analyze topicalization, its pragmatic constraints and pragmatic functions from the angle of pragmatics.Introduction of this thesis makes clear the need and significance of the study and distinguishes confusing terms.Based on literature review at home and abroad, Chapter One summarizes features of previous studies and makes clear characteristics of the present study.Chapter Two discusses the grammatical realization of topicalization and its pragmatic constraints. At first two sets of terms are distinguished: subject-prominent and topic-prominent. English is a subject-prominent language, while Chinese is a topic-prominent language. The characteristics and differences of the realization of their topicalizations are analyzed. It is also pointed out that Chinese displays more freedom in its realization of topicalization. Then based on Sperber & Wilson' relevance theory (2001), the thesis analyzes the pragmatic constraints of topicalization and introduces certain categories. The relationship between topicalization and definiteness is discussed in the last section of this chapter.Chapter Three gives an account of topicalization from the perspective of pragmatics. First, it introduces Verschueren's adaptation theory. Using language consists of continuous making of linguistic choices in that language has the properties of variability, negotiability and adaptability. Then it reveals that topicalization reflects pragmatic principles of linear order in sequence. The most important or urgent information and unpredictable information tends to be put in the initial position. This pragmatic order reinforces the claim that information in the sentence initial position commands more attention and is memorized better.As the main body of the thesis, Chapter Four conducts a detailed and profound investigation of topicalization in English and Chinese through the methods of illustration and frequency analysis. First it introduces the information structure theory of Halliday and analyzes the information transmission function. It can be drawn from the analysis that topicalization can convey given information, inferable given information, inferable new information, contrastive information and new information. Second on the basis of Halliday & Hasan' cohesion theory, in constructing a text topicalization performs textual function: achieving cohesion to the previous text and providing new topics for the next to follow. Third it is also found that topicalization can perform stylistic function in order to gain emphasis and clarity. In the end of this chapter, the thesis probes into several differences of pragmatic functions of topicalization in English and Chinese.Chapter Five mainly discusses the implications of the study. First, in English-Chinese translation, the appropriate treatment of topicalization can realize the functional-equivalence principle in translation. Second, the role of context in the analysis of a discourse should be highly stressed.In the final part of Conclusion, which serves as the retrospect and prospect of the whole thesis, we summarize our findings and point out the limitations and unsolved problems that need to be further investigated.