28.6 Topics I
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A topic is a type of grammatical component in a sentence. It is a special characteristic in the sentence structure of Chinese.
A topic appears at the beginning of a sentence. It sets the theme of the sentence which we will use to interpret the rest of the sentence. In grammar, we call the part after the topic comment.
There are different types of topics. In this lesson, we will see that the object of a sentence is sometimes moved to the beginning of the sentence and becomes the topic of the sentence.
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The object 瀨尿蝦 laai6 niu6 haa1 (‘mantis shrimp’) is moved to the beginning of the sentence and becomes the topic of the sentence. 瀨尿蝦 laai6 niu6 haa1 sets the theme of the sentence which is used to interpreting the comment 今日冇呀 gam1 jat6 mou5 aa3.
Sometimes only part of the object is moved to the beginning of the sentence.
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Part of the object 滷水拼盤 lou5 seoi2 ping3 pun2 (‘Master Stock Platter’) is moved to the beginning of the sentence and becomes the topic of the sentence. 滷水拼盤 lou5 seoi2 ping3 pun2 sets the theme of the sentence which is used to interpreting the comment 你哋要大定細嘅 nei5 dei6 jiu3 daai6 ding6 sai3 ge3. Notice 嘅 ge3 between 大定細 daai6 ding6 sai3 and 滷水拼盤 lou5 seoi2 ping3 pun2 is omitted after 滷水拼盤 lou5 seoi2 ping3 pun2 is moved to the beginning of the sentence.
We will learn about other types of topics in later lessons.