14. Topicalization

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14.1 Topics

The topic of a sentence refers to what the sentence is about, which is not always necessarily the subject. In conversation, one topic may be used over many sentences, or just one. All languages have some way of marking the topic, often by fronting it to the beginning of the clause. Novegradian, on the other hand, has developed a distinct topic marker, то, originally a demonstrative. This older usage can be seen reflected in the subordinating conjunction's formation. As a clitic, it may attach itself to any noun or pronoun, although never on any other parts of speech. A topicalized noun will generally (although not necessarily) move toward the front of the clause as well, dragging prepositions and some adverbs along with it. The definite form of adjectives used with topicalized nouns derives from the Proto-Slavic anaphoric pronoun, which was also the source of the oblique forms of the third-person pronouns.

Topic marking is used frequently in Novegradian writing and discourse, but has been largely ignored thus far in examples because it means very little without context. Longer texts or transcripts of conversations are necessarily to demonstrate their usage adequately. For this reason, in section 14.5 at the end of this chapter there is a transcript of a brief conversation as well as an example of topicalization in formal writing.

14.2 Marking the Topic

The topic marker is attached to the end of the fully-declined noun, separated in writing with a hyphen. It undergoes some sort of vowel harmony where the vowel of the marker changes according to the last vowel of the word it was attached to.

In the nominative and inanimate accusative cases, there are six such forms. -от, with a metathesized vowel, is used after nouns ending in a consonant. -та is used after any singular noun ending in /a/, regardless of gender. -те is used after a noun ending in /e/. The plain -то is used in all other singular situations (neuter nouns in /o/, nouns in /i/, etc). -ти is used after all nominative plural nouns ending in either /i/ or /e/ and -та after all plural nouns ending in /a/.

In the oblique cases as well as the animate accusative, all of these forms collapse into just two. -те is used whenever the previous word ends in a front vowel /æ e i/ and -то when it ends in a back vowel /a o u ɨ/ or consonant.

For pronouns, the rules are slightly different. A combination of phonological rules (first and second persons) and natural gender (third person) comes in play. First and second person pronouns in any case have only two forms, -то after forms ending a vowel and -от after forms ending in a consonant: яс-от ias-ót "I.nom", мене-то mené-to "I.acc". In the third person, -то is used for all masculine, neuter, dual, and plural pronouns regardless of case, and -та is used for all feminine pronouns: она-та oná-ta "she.nom", ѣ-та iě́-ta "she.acc".

The same set of rules used with the third person (-та for feminine, -то for all others) apply to other pronouns such as ше, вехе, едене, and others that display gender. Interrogative pronouns all take -от, and almost always appear in their 'emphatic' forms with the suffix -ж: штож-от śtoź-ót "what...?"

Adjectives modifying a topicalized noun directly must appear in their topicalized forms. Across a copula this is optional, although increasingly uncommon.

If a compound nominal phrase is meant to be topicalized, the topical marker only attaches to the first word, though nevertheless applies to the whole phrase.

14.3 Referencing the Topic

Generally once a topic has been introduced and no new topic has yet taken its place, it does not need to be mentioned and can simply be dropped, whether it be the subject, object, or an oblique case, although the latter two are much less frequent than the first. The sole required exception is when the topic is supposed to be the object of a preposition, in which case the preposition cannot be left stranded. In such cases, some pronoun must be left behind in place of the dropped object. If third person, a declined form of то is often used.

If a noun is repeated in full for emphasis after it has been introduced, the topic marker often remains attached in these subsequent occurances. However, if a pronoun representing the topic is repeated, the marker is rarely seen.

14.4 Changing the Topic

The introduction of a new noun with the topic marker serves to replace the previous one with the new one from that point onward. A new noun bearing the topic marker appearing in a sentence also using the previous topic will appear toward the end of the clause, rather than the beginning, to avoid confusion. For example, in a discussion about Еване, a transition sentence may appear as И задѣм покренале новий воз-от "And then he bought that new car"), where the topic remains unchanged until the end of the sentence. Alternatively, the noun "car" could remain unmarked until the following sentence.

14.5 An Example

14.5.1 A Conversation

On the left is the transcription of the conversation, in the middle is an abbreviated gloss, and on the right is a translation.

14.5.2 A Newspaper Article

Following is a summarized version of an article from the Novegradian newspaper Совѣшкьи Sově́śkji. Below are a transliteration and an inline abbreviated gloss. The full translation is at the bottom.

Вецераш, дуадеши цедиртий врѣсанѣ, послалашин ко Каирем маленая група-та сокладиш со пентерем дипломакьам Организасин Сиединених Народ нав едну шемицу во шем градѣ, напустенѣ войнам. Воклуѕаен вуисоѕен спецялишекь зе Новеградескѣе Республикѣ, Англин, Сиединених Штат, Германин, и Лигѣ Арабеских Народ, ше дипломадицеское бадет вастатиш со командирам протистанец во лѣтнѣ Каирѣ со тѣм-це старатиш организати премирия. Каире-те, разом со болишой цестюм западна Египета, буиле под протистанцоуном властюм ож со тово-це нашнала гражданеска война. Шена буила о сорѣзаньѣ приглубѣ, еда роспустин спорадицески рейди республиканески крѣуностия на бежѣднони мѣстони. На врѣмено, стоекьое республиканеское правястуо-то перемѣстилошин на граден портовун Ал-Искиндирея (Алѣксандрия). Нимо тово-це многи не надѣюци нав оспѣх шей миссин, английске дипломате Ричарде Аллене-те сорѣѕиле то-це „Надѣемши на то-це ше ест шегем ко позидивием деля созданьа премирий.‟

"Yesterday, September 24th, a small group consisting of five United Nations diplomats was dispatched to Cairo for a week-long stay in the war-torn city. Including highly-trained specialists from the Republic of Novegrad, England, the United States, Germany, and the League of Arab Nations, the diplomatic dispatch will meet with rebel leaders in southern Cairo to try to organize a cease fire. Cairo, as well as a significant portion of western Egypt, has been in rebel control for the last three months since the civil war started. Cairo has been the scene of intense fighting as Republican strongholds scattered throughout the city have launched sporadic raids on occupied compounds. In the meantime, the acting Republican government has been relocated to the port of Al-Iskindireya (Alexandria). While many are not optimistic about the success of this mission, English diplomat and mission leader Richard Allen has stated that 'we are hopeful that this is a step in the positive direction toward finally bringing about a truce.'"

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