Topic Lane / Current Aboutness
What are we talking about now?
Signification
The already established or chosen frame that the sentence comments on.
Comment le repérer
Ask what the sentence is about before asking what new information it adds.
Exemples
as for|about|this topic|that person
as for me|about the price|regarding your question
As for the price, it is too high.
Visual guide
Topic = current lane
As for the price,
[TOPIC: price]
|
v
[COMMENT]
it is too high
Same comment, topic marked: position: PRICE | too high particle: price TOP | too high pronoun: price | it is too high omission: Ø(price) | too high Ask: what is the frame?
Vue par langue
Dans votre langue maternelle
Topics are often handled by left dislocation in spoken French or by normal sentence framing.
Le prix, il est trop élevé.
The price, it is too high.
Dans votre langue d’apprentissage
L’anglais peut annoncer le sujet avec des expressions comme As for..., mais il s’appuie souvent sur l’ordre normal de la phrase, l’intonation et le contexte plutôt que sur un marqueur spécial.
As for the price, it is too high.
the price = sujet dont on parle maintenant
Les apprenants venant de langues où le thème est très marqué peuvent trop souvent placer un élément au début de la phrase en anglais.
Good transfer potential
This block behaves relatively similarly, so you can transfer intuition more safely between the two languages.