Topic Sentences in Mosuo
This article examines topic sentences in the Moso (Mosuo) language, a Tibeto-Burman language, arguing that Moso is a topic-prominent language due to its typical copy-topic structure. The main topic marker is "tɕo33," forming the pattern "topic + tɕo33 + comment." Both primary and secondary topics can take diverse grammatical forms, and topics operate across syntactic, semantic, and grammatical planes. The authors show that topic and subject sometimes overlap, while factors such as information focus can prevent the subject from serving as topic; topicalization and subjectivization reflect the language's syntactic coordination. Reviewing prior scholarship on topic-subject typology (Hockett, Zhao Yuanren, Cao Fengfu, Hu Yushu, Liu Danqing) and comparing Moso's subject/agent markers ("nɯ33"), object/patient markers ("ki33," "to31"), and topic marker, the study fills a gap in Tibeto-Burman topic research and contributes empirical data to language typology.
This page publishes the bibliographic record and the project's summary. The scanned article text belongs to its publisher and is shown to readers under a research-use policy; it is not reproduced in this record.