Chapter 6

Topic and the representation of

discourse content
Contents
1.The notion “Topic”
2.Sentential topic
3.Discourse topic
4.Topic framework
5.Relevance and speaking topically
6.Topic boundary markers
7.Discourse topic and representation of
discourse content
1. The notion
“topic”
-The "notion of topic" refers to the main subject of conversation or text.
+) In written language:
• “Once upon a time” in a fairy tale --> show the start
• “They lived happily ever after” --> marks the end.
--> These markers help identify boundaries in a structured story.
+) In conversations: analysts often rely on their intuition to sense when the topic
changes.
For example:
Speaker 1: "I've been saving up for a new car."
Speaker 2: "Yeah, money's tight for everyone these days. By the way, did you
hear about Jane’s new job?"
2. Sentential topic
According to Hockett, we should distinguish between the topic and comment in
a sentence.
-The grammatical subject is the marks of the topic and the predicate indicates
the comment.
For example:
"The boys like football."
Topic: "The boys" (the subject, what the sentence is about)
Comment: "like football" (what is said about the boys)
"We are not concerned with politics."
-However, this subject-topic relationship doesn't always hold true.
Ex: "I wrote two letters. One I posted. One I put in my pocket."
• 2nd, 3rd: topic is ”one” --> refers to “one letter”
• grammatical subject is "I."
--> the topic is not always the subject of the sentence.
Theme and Rheme:
-”The Theme” : contains known or given information (=topic)
-”The Rheme”: introduces new information (=comment)
Ex: "The weather today is sunny."
• Theme: "The weather today"
• Rheme: "is sunny"
3. Discourse topic
3. Discourse topic
The term discourse topic was introduced by Keenan and Schiefflin (1976) to
distinguish it from the grammatical notion of topic.
Expression:
• A discourse topic is often expressed through a proposition, taking the form
of a phrase or sentence.
• Example: The book title Discourse Analysis is a noun phrase, but it conveys
a proposition.
Defintion: A topic is an abstraction or generalization, which makes its
expression subjective. There are various valid ways to express the topic of any
discourse.
3. Discourse topic
Story Example:
• A local school introduces a new program to help students develop life
skills, such as managing time, cooking, and budgeting.
Different ways to express the topic:
• (a) School Launches Life Skills Program
• (b) Students Learn Important Life Skills at School
• (c) New School Program Focuses on Practical Skills

=> The topic of a text gives a general idea of what it’s

about, like a headline or summary.
4.Topic Framework
4.Topic framework
4.1.Concept of “ Topic"
"Topic" refers to what is being talked about in a piece of writing
or speech.
Ex: In an essay about war, the "topic" might be the origins of the
army.
4.2.Topic Framework
It is a system that includes contextual elements necessary for
understanding content.
Ex: In Xenophon's essay, the sentences support the topic of the
first formation of the army.
4.Topic framework
4.3.Example of Topic Framework
The main theme of the essay is the formation of the first army.
The sentences refer to the time, tools, and weapons used, as
well as the organization of the soldiers, all of which contribute to
building the main theme.

The essay connects historical events with the concept of an

army, distinguishing between an army and a mere gathering of
people. This connection creates coherence in the text.
4.Topic framework
4.4.Relevance

Every sentence in the text must be relevant and

contribute to the main topic.
Ex: Xenophon's essay focuses on the army and
eliminates unrelated information.
4.Presupposition
Pool
4.Presupposition Pool
4.1.Presupposition ( Tiền giả định)
It refers to the assumptions made by the speaker about
what the listener is likely to accept without challenge.

4.2.Presupposition Pool
• The presupposition pool consists of the shared knowledge
between the speaker and the listener that facilitates
communication.
• Within this pool, there exists a set of discourse subjects that
people can use to carry on their conversations without needing
to explicitly assert their existence.
4.Presupposition Pool
4.3.Example

• The United Nations Security Council appointing Kofi

Annan as Secretary-General.
• Readers already presuppose knowledge about
concepts like the United Nations, the Security Council,
and the Secretary-General, without needing further
explanation.
5.Relevance and
speaking topically
5.1. Relevance
• Relevance:
Information is considered relevant when it fits within the current
topic framework, which serves as the central organizing axis of
discourse.
Grice’s Relation Maxim can be modified to: “Make your
contribution relevant to the existing topic framework.”
• Speaking topically:
According to Brown and Yule (1983), this occurs when
participants contribute information that closely aligns with the
most recent elements of the topic framework.
5.1. Relevance in Discourse
Example:
Man: Where are you going for your holiday this year? Have you
decided?
Woman: Yes, we’re going to Corsica.
Man: Oh, I know Corsica well. I spent a year there.
Woman: Really, what’s it like?
Man: It’s very beautiful. It’s got everything. Mountains, beaches, and
good weather.
Woman: And what are the people like?
In this example, the conversation flows naturally, without a fixed
direction, with participants contributing equally to the exchange.
5.2. Speaker’s Topic
• In many conversations, topics are not predetermined but
are negotiated as the conversation progresses.

• While contributing to the overall topic, each speaker

may also develop their own subtopic. This dynamic is
common in debates or discussions, where participants
try to defend their own viewpoints.
5.2. Speaker’s Topic
Example (from Brown and Yule):
F: I quite like the way they’ve done the Mile though. I think it’s quite –
M: Yes [aha yes
F: The bottom of it anyway
M: it is quite good. They’ve certainly kept within the + em + preserved it
reasonably well or conserved it. But we were up in Aberdeen this year for a
holiday and stayed within the University complex there, in Old Aberdeen.
Some of the buildings there are beautiful , really nice.
F: I was noticing , I was down by Queen Street or , the bottom of Hanover
Street , and they’ve just cleaned up some of the buildings down there , and
what a difference it makes.
5.2. Speaker’s Topic

In this example,
F's topic is about restoration of buildings, but M introduces a
new topic about his holiday.
Despite contributing to the overall theme, M focuses on his
personal experience instead of following the initial topic. This
illustrates how speakers can develop their own topics within a
conversation.
6. TOPIC BOUNDARY
MARKERS
One of the issues facing the discourse analyst is how to define the
boundary of such an elusive thing as the topic in connected speech.
In written language, paragraphs are typically used to organize
sentences around a central idea, with a topic sentence and supporting
sentences.
However, linguists argue for a distinction between the traditional
paragraph, which focuses on topic, and the orthographic or stylistic
paragraph, which focuses more on visual appeal.
Examples
• “We have reached a consensus that the next secretary general
should be Mr. Kofi Annan,” said John Weston (1 sentence).
• “This is a good result for Africa and the UN organization,” he said
(1 sentence).
• France had been blocking Mr. Annan, but it withdrew its objection,
as indicated by Mr. Weston (2 sentences).
• France is a permanent member of the Security Council with veto
power, along with the U.S., Britain, China, and Russia (1
sentence).
=> The examples show 1- and 2-sentence paragraphs, suggesting the
writer does not strictly follow traditional paragraph conventions.
• Subjectivity in Paragraph Division
Even though long stretches of text can often be split into traditional
paragraphs, these divisions, like the topic itself, can be a "grey area." A
clear example is provided in an extract from Clyne's work, which
discusses intercultural communication styles across different cultural
groups.
• Transition in Topic
The discourse unity is acknowledged, but a subtle topic shift is
identified between “some features” and “areal cultures.” While formal
markers for topic shifts may be hard to detect, an intuitive sense of
when the topic changes is often required.
Paratones in Spoken
Language
For spoken language, Brown introduces the concept of "paratones,"
similar to paragraphs in written language.
• Defining the boundaries of paratones is more challenging, but
there are markers such as "transition signals" like "by the way" or
"now."
• Brown also suggests using phonological prominence—where the
introductory expression is emphasized by a raised pitch and the
ending marked by low pitch, reduced volume, and pauses.
7. Discourse topic and
representation of
discourse content
• Discourse topic is closely related to the representation of
discourse content, because in a way it may be seen that
discourse content is the expression of discourse topic.

• Van Dijk remarks that: “Discourse topics seem to reduce,

organize and categorize semantic information of
sequences as wholes” (1977, quoted in Brown and Yule,
(1983: 109))
7.1. Proposition based
- Proposition-based representation is used to represent semantic
content in discourse, particularly in psycholinguistics. It is based
on the concept of a proposition derived from formal logic.
- In logic, a proposition represents a context-independent,
invariant meaning of a sentence or statement. However, in text
analysis, it is treated as an interpretation of a sentence within a
specific context, often as a relationship between a predicate and
its arguments.
- Proposition-based representation forms a macro-structure that
defines the meanings of individual parts of discourse and the
whole discourse based on the meanings of individual sentences.
7.2. Memory for text grammar:
story-grammars
According to Thorndyke, simple narrative stories may result from a set of
hierarchically organized components as follows:
1. STORY: SETTING + THEME + PLOT + RESOLUTION
2. SETTING: CHARACTERS+ LOCATION + TIME
3. THEME: (EVENT) + GOAL
4. PLOT: EPISODE
5. EPISODE: SUBGOAL + ATTEMPT + OUTCOME
6. ATTEMPT: EVENT + EPISODE
7. OUTCOME: EVENT + STATE
8. RESOLUTION: BVENT + STATE
9. SUBGOAL, GOAL: DESIREDSTATE
10. CHARACTER, LOCATION TIME: STATE
7.3. Representing
discourse-content as a network
- Beaugrande (1980) offers an alternative
approach, which represents content in
the form of a network, this is an
idealisation of the actual cognitive entities
involved.
Example: A great black and yellow V-2
rocket 46 feet long stood in a New
Mexico desert. Empty, it weighed five
tons. For fuel it carried eight tons of
-alcohol
It should
andbeliquid
apparent that with longer, text, the network will be more complex,
oxygen.
hence the difficulty in terms of application.
Thank
You