Topicality and the problem of “topic” in American Sign Language discourse

American Sign Language (ASL) has been characterized as a topic-comment or as a topic-prominent language. But studies based on actual usage reveal a great deal of variation, leading to the proposal here that the very idea of a definable category of topic should be re-examined. Janzen (2007) proposes a topicality hierarchy for constructions in ASL, finding that the higher degree of topicality an expression has, the less likely it would be found as a marked topic. Only expressions at the lowest levels of the topicality scale occur as marked topics in topic-comment constructions. When the topic content is nominal, marked topic phrases are typically explicit noun phrases or full clauses. Relatedly, marked topics indicate topic shift rather than topic maintenance. In line with Langacker’s (2008, 2013) analysis of topic expressions as reference-point constructions, topics in ASL are subjectively chosen by signers as a pragmatic framing mechanism, given that the signer might have multiple viable reference points from which to choose. It is also an intersubjective choice, taking into account assumptions regarding the addressee’s knowledge store. If “topic” is a language-specific notion, characterizing topic as a cross-linguistic category may be problematic. It is within this context that “topic” is explored in this study of ASL.