Topic-comment structure 175
9. Topic-comment structure
While most sentences consist of a subject and a predicate with its complements
(plus sentential and verbal modifiers), some sentences also include a topic, for
which the remainder of the sentence is a comment. As shown below, these top-
ics must be either be coindexed with a pronominal subject or a pronominal pos-
sessor of a subject. In this structure, the standard sentences in (147a) and (148a)
have the topic-comment variants in (147b) and (148b).
(147) a. Pa' Tono senneng-ngan neng penggir sereng.
Mr Tono happy-AN at edge coast
‘Pak Tono enjoys spending time at the beach.’
b. Pa' Tono, aba'eng senneng-ngan neng penggir sereng.
Mr Tono he happy-AN at edge coast
‘Pak Tono, he enjoys spending time at the beach.’
(148) a. Atin ajar tata-na molekul karbon.
Atin study structure-DEF molecule carbon
‘Atin studies the structure of carbon molecules.’
b. Atin, aba'na ajar tata-na molekul karbon.
Atin she study structure-DEF molecule carbon
‘Atin, she studies the structure of carbon molecules.’
The topic-comment structures consist of a topic NP in initial position and a
sentence, the comment. The topic and comment stand in a subject - predicate
type of relationship as the comment clause predicates some state of affair of the
subject. Here the comment includes a coreferential pronoun as subject of the
sentence. Thus, in (147b) Pa' Tono is the topic, and the following sentence with
the coreferential subject aba'eng ‘he’ is the comment, which establishes that
Pak Tono likes to go to the beach. In (148b), the topic is Atin, and the comment
follows with the coreferential pronoun aba'na as subject. The topic-comment
structure places additional emphasis on the topic.
A possession relation can obtain between the topic and the subject of the
comment.
(149) a. Jendela-na bengko mera rowa biyasana kotor.
window-DEF house red that usual dirty
‘That red house’s windows are usually dirty.’