Topicalization

The appearance of the demonstrative determiners that and those is important since without them, topicalization of an argument seems less acceptable: A pizza I won't eat, for example.

Further data, which will not be produced here, could show, however, that topicalization is unlike the other two major discontinuity types: scrambling and extraposition.

The theoretical analysis of topicalization can vary greatly depending in part on the theory of sentence structure that one adopts.

If, in contrast, less layered structures are assumed as for example in dependency grammar, then many instances of topicalization do not involve a discontinuity, but rather just inversion.

[4] This point is illustrated here first using flatter structures that lack a finite VP-constituent (which means the entire sentence has the status of a large VP).

The topicalized expression is first generated in its canonical position but is then copied to the front of the sentence, the original then being deleted.

A piece of Yoda wisdom is again used for illustration, the full sentence being Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin: The nodes in red mark the path of feature passing.