Topicalização e construções de tópico: "Esse filme, eu já vi" e o tópico-sujeito
Topicalização e construções de tópico: "Esse filme, eu já vi" e o tópico-sujeito means “Front the theme, then comment on it — with a resumptive pronoun, without one, or (Brazilian-only) letting a non-agent become the subject”. Brazilian Portuguese is markedly topic-prominent: speakers habitually announce the theme first and comment on it after, far more freely than European Portuguese, Spanish or French allow. Formation: tópico à esquerda (+ retomada opcional: ele/isso/lá) · tópico-sujeito: não-agente vira sujeito (Essa casa bate sol) · anacoluto: tópico sem função na oração
Front the theme, then comment on it — with a resumptive pronoun, without one, or (Brazilian-only) letting a non-agent become the subject
C2Formation
tópico à esquerda (+ retomada opcional: ele/isso/lá) · tópico-sujeito: não-agente vira sujeito (Essa casa bate sol) · anacoluto: tópico sem função na oração
Explanation
Brazilian Portuguese is markedly topic-prominent: speakers habitually announce the theme first and comment on it after, far more freely than European Portuguese, Spanish or French allow. The commonest type is left-dislocation, where a fronted phrase is picked up inside the clause by a pronoun (O João, eu falei com ele ontem) or by nothing at all (Cerveja, eu não bebo; Esse filme, eu já vi). A second, distinctly Brazilian type is the tópico-sujeito, where a non-agent — a location, a possessor, a whole setting — is promoted to grammatical subject and the verb agrees with it: Essa casa bate sol o dia todo (this house gets sun all day), Meu carro furou o pneu (my car — its tire went flat), O Brasil chove muito no verão. A third, looser type is the anacoluto, where the fronted phrase has no slot in the sentence at all: Eu, o que me irrita é atraso. All three are pragmatically natural in speech, and left-dislocation is increasingly accepted in writing, but the tópico-sujeito remains nonstandard in formal registers. Spanish also left-dislocates — Ese libro, ya lo leí — yet it has no equivalent of Essa casa bate sol, so mark that pattern as specifically Brazilian.
Examples
Note
Left-dislocation (Esse filme, eu já vi) is safe in speech and increasingly in writing. But the tópico-sujeito type — Essa casa bate sol, Meu carro furou o pneu — is spoken-only; in formal writing recast it (Nessa casa bate sol; O pneu do meu carro furou). Spanish speakers: you already dislocate, but Essa casa bate sol has no Spanish twin.
FAQ
Topicalização e construções de tópico: "Esse filme, eu já vi" e o tópico-sujeito — what does it mean and how is it used?
Front the theme, then comment on it — with a resumptive pronoun, without one, or (Brazilian-only) letting a non-agent become the subject. Brazilian Portuguese is markedly topic-prominent: speakers habitually announce the theme first and comment on it after, far more freely than European Portuguese, Spanish or French allow. The commonest type is left-dislocation, where a fronted phrase is picked up inside the clause by a pronoun (O João, eu falei com ele ontem) or by nothing at all (Cerveja, eu não bebo; Esse filme, eu já vi). A second, distinctly Brazilian type is the tópico-sujeito, where a non-agent — a location, a possessor, a whole setting — is promoted to grammatical subject and the verb agrees with it: Essa casa bate sol o dia todo (this house gets sun all day), Meu carro furou o pneu (my car — its tire went flat), O Brasil chove muito no verão. A third, looser type is the anacoluto, where the fronted phrase has no slot in the sentence at all: Eu, o que me irrita é atraso. All three are pragmatically natural in speech, and left-dislocation is increasingly accepted in writing, but the tópico-sujeito remains nonstandard in formal registers. Spanish also left-dislocates — Ese libro, ya lo leí — yet it has no equivalent of Essa casa bate sol, so mark that pattern as specifically Brazilian.
Topicalização e construções de tópico: "Esse filme, eu já vi" e o tópico-sujeito — how do you form it?
tópico à esquerda (+ retomada opcional: ele/isso/lá) · tópico-sujeito: não-agente vira sujeito (Essa casa bate sol) · anacoluto: tópico sem função na oração
Topicalização e construções de tópico: "Esse filme, eu já vi" e o tópico-sujeito — any usage notes?
Left-dislocation (Esse filme, eu já vi) is safe in speech and increasingly in writing. But the tópico-sujeito type — Essa casa bate sol, Meu carro furou o pneu — is spoken-only; in formal writing recast it (Nessa casa bate sol; O pneu do meu carro furou). Spanish speakers: you already dislocate, but Essa casa bate sol has no Spanish twin.