Topic marker

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A topic marker is a grammatical particle used to mark the topic of a sentence. It is found in Japanese, Korean, Ryukyuan, Imonda, and, to a limited extent, Classical Chinese. It often overlaps with the subject of a sentence, causing confusion for learners, as most other languages lack it. It differs from a subject in that it puts more emphasis on the item and can be used with words in other roles as well.

Video Topic marker

Korean: ?/?

In Korean, ? (neun) and ? (eun) function similarly to the Japanese topic marker. ? (neun) is used after words that end in a vowel and ? (eun) is used after words that end in a consonant.

Maps Topic marker

Japanese: ?

The topic marker is one of many Japanese particles. It is written with the hiragana ?, which is normally pronounced ha, but when used as a particle is pronounced wa. It is placed after whatever is to be marked as the topic. If what is to be the topic would have had ? (ga), the subject marker, or ? ((w)o), the direct object marker, as its particle, those are replaced by ?. Other particles (for example: ?, ?, or ?) are not replaced, and ? is placed after them.

The English phrase "as for" is often used to convey the connotation of ?, although in many cases this sounds unnatural when used in English. It does, however, convey some senses of the particle, one of which is to mark changing topics. If a person were speaking about someone else and then switched to referring to himself, he should say ?? (watashi wa), "as for me...". After that, it wouldn't be necessary to mention again that he was speaking about himself.

Example

In the following example, "car" (?, kuruma) is the subject, and it is marked as the topic. The ? that would normally be there to mark the subject has been replaced by ?. The topic normally goes at the beginning of the clause.

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Classical Chinese: ? (Zh?)

Zh? is similar to the Japanese wa, but is used sporadically in Classical Chinese and only when an author wants to emphasize the topic. Zh? is usually omitted, unlike in Japanese where a topic marker is generally required. Note that although Zh? can be used as a suffix attached to a verb or adjective, transforming the verb or adjective into a noun, as a topic marker, its grammatical function is fundamentally different from that of a suffix and therefore cannot be viewed as a suffix.

As an example, consider the sentence "???,????" (Chénshèng zh?, yángchéng rén y?), a famous sentence from the Records of the Grand Historian:

• Literal translation: Chen Sheng is a Yangcheng person.
• Semantic translation: Chen Sheng is from Yangcheng originally.
• Word for word explanation:
  • Chénshèng: name of a 3rd-century B.C. rebel.
  • Zh?: Topic marker.
  • Yángchéng: name of a town.
  • Rén: person.
  • Y?: Is. (Ye means is, am, or are when used in conjunction with Zh?; it can mean other things when used independently.)

Note that ?, as well as the sentence of "Chénshèng zh?, yángchéng rén y?," is romanized here according to modern Mandarin pronunciations. It is unclear how ? and the entire sentence would have been pronounced 2,000 years ago (and what the proper romanization should have been).

Note: The structure of this sentence <zh? + y?> is much more similar to the Japanese <wa + desu> structure than to modern Chinese, where topic markers have been completely lost and are not used anywhere. As the following,

Note: <shì> can be omitted in some occasions.

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Bengali ?? / ???

Similar to Japanese, Bengali nouns follow an marker. To mark an nominative noun in Bengali it usually follows the noun with "Ta" or "??" or "gulo" / "???" if plural. To mark an object "Ta-ke" or "????" is followed after the noun or "gulo-ke" / "?????" if plural. To show possiveness "R" / "?" is added after the noun if the noun end with a vowell, if not it ends with a "??" / "Er."

Eg. ??????? ???? ????
Chatro-ta bhalo ache.
The student good is.
The student is good.

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See also

• Topic-prominent language
• Topic (linguistics)
• Japanese grammar
  • Thematic wa
  • Contrastive wa
• Japanese particles
  • wa

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References

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External links

• Joshi (Particles) in Japanese - Meguro Language Center
• Wiktionary definition of ? as a particle

Source of article : Wikipedia