Topic-Related Variation in Discourse:  A Sociolinguistic    Analysis
{'Code': '04040500', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'SBE', 'LongName': 'Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'BCS', 'LongName': 'Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Paul G. Chapin', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
ABSTRACT                                                                                                                                 Although most scholars agree that "topic" may be defined as                "what a message is about", topic is still one of the least                      understood concepts in linguistics.  The general objective of                   this study is to integrate different types and levels of topic:                 entity, proposition, text, speaker, and interactive topics.  The                method will be to analyze how variation in language use is                      related to topic.  The focus will be on variation in clause order               (between main and subordinate clauses), and variation in                        referring terms, and how such linguistic variants are situated in               discourse and interaction.  Because topic realization depends on                communicative processes that are social and expressive, as well                 as referential, there will also be an analysis of how topic-                    related variation in clause order, and in referring terms, is                   related to speakers' social identity (social class and gender).                                                                                                      The study differs from past analyses of topic in several                   ways:  1) the study aims to integrate five different types and                  levels of topic; 2) the study includes an analysis of the                       information status, as well as the topic status, of entities and                propositions; 3) the data are diversified in terms of discourse                 mode; 4) the discourse in which topics are encoded is itself                    analyzed; 5) the study examines social differences in the                       encoding of topic.                                                                                                                                                   The project is relevant to the study of topic, information                 status, linguistic variation, syntax and discourse, and social                  differences in language use.  It also has implications for                      variation theory and analysis, and our understanding of discourse               coherence.  Finally, it will provide connections between                        interactional and correlational sociolinguistics, and help align                the concerns of formal and functional linguistics.
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{'Code': '131100', 'Text': 'Linguistics'}
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