ABSTRACT
Topic has been described as a discourse notion (see, for example, Chafe, 1972; U and Thompson, 1976). However, there has been no systematic study in linguistics of the way in which topics are initiated, sustained and/or dropped in naturally-occurring discourse. This paper addresses itself to this concern. It draws from notions developed by sociologists engaged in conversational analysis and integrates them with our own observations of the conversations of children and adults. aUf observations include nonverbal as well as verbal contexts in which topics are entertained by interlocutors. On the basis of this record, the prerequisite steps for getting a topic into the discourse are characterized and a notion of discourse topic is defmed.
