INTRODUCING NEW POTENTIAL TOPICS INTO THE DISCOURSE
New referents have to be introduced into the discourse in order to be discussed. Some languages have specific morphological markers to indicate that something is being presented as a potential new topic. English has no such morphological devices, but there are still ways of presenting new referents into the discourse. These include the following:
1 The subject of an intransitive clause (including copular clauses) can present or identify a new entity. Such is the case with an urban fox in the sentence An urban fox appears in our garden every morning. When spoken, extra pitch and stress help the hearer to make contact with the new referent.
2 When the Subject is known, the direct object often introduces a new entity: I saw a most extraordinary person in the park this afternoon. It has been estimated that between them the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb account for the majority of new entities introduced in spoken discourse.
3 Unstressed there with be – or a presentative verb such as appear, which has the same effect – can introduce a new referent, as in There was a good program on television last night.
4 A statement can explicitly inform the hearer what the Topic is going to be, as in Today I want to talk to you about genetic engineering.
5 Inversion of a copular clause can introduce a new Topic, as in Worst of all was the lack of fresh water.
It must be emphasized that not every entity introduced into the discourse is maintained as a major topic with its own identity chain. Many do not survive the first mention, such is the volume of incoming detail to be processed mentally. In conversation, estalishing a discourse topic is eminently collaborative, and some new entities may not be considered newsworthy enough to survive.
