ABSTRACT
This chapter brings together the theoretical considerations and the empirical results from the study of topicalization in Asian Englishes. The potential of language contact, second-language acquisition (SLA), social factors, language identity, variety status, and politeness as reasons for variation in topicalization frequency are evaluated. Language contact receives emphasis in this chapter since no other study has considered the role of substrate influence in sufficient detail. It becomes clear that language contact does not explain topicalization frequencies in Asian Englishes to a large extent, since the topic-prominent status of Cantonese would suggest much higher frequencies than could be found in ICE-Hong Kong. However, processes of SLA and a lack of natural usage of English in Hong Kong may explain why it is not more frequent. For India, the use of topicalization as a politeness strategy is put forward as a reason for the high frequencies. In Singapore, topicalization might be a nativized feature, explaining its relatively high frequencies, and the Philippines show a mixed set of reasons for frequencies ranging between those of the other three varieties.
