29.3 Topics II

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In Grammar and Vocabulary 28.6, we learned that a topic appears at the beginning of a sentence and sets the theme of the sentence which we will use to interpret the rest of the sentence. We also learned that the object of a sentence is sometimes moved to the beginning of the sentence and becomes the topic of the sentence.

The topic doesn’t need to be the object of a sentence. It can simply be a noun phrase that we add at the beginning of the sentence to set the theme of the sentence.

TopicComment
Noun PhraseSubjectVerbObjectSP
湯你要中湯定西湯呀？
tong1nei5jiu3zung1 tong1 ding6 sai1 tong1aa3?
soupyouwantChinese soup or Western soupSP
For the soup, do you want Chinese soup or Western soup?
The noun phrase 湯 tong1 (‘soup’) appears at the beginning of the sentence and signals that the question is about soup.
TopicComment
Noun PhraseSubjectVerbObjectSP
C餐你要乜嘢汁呀？
C caan1nei5jiu3mat1 je5 zap1aa3?
Set Cyouwantwhat sauceSP
For Set C, what sauce do you want?
The noun phrase C餐 C caan1 (‘Set C’) appears at the beginning of the sentence and signals that the question is about Set C.