ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces topicalization in Asian Englishes by giving a concise overview of what topicalization is, what it looks like, and why it is important to study this linguistic feature in Asian varieties of English. Topicalization, defined as the sentence-initial placement of syntactic constituents other than the subject, has been noted as an important feature of several Asian Englishes. The introduction gives a brief account of previous studies on the feature and provides an overview of the structure as well as the main research questions of the book: What are the forms, functions, and frequencies of topicalization in Asian Englishes? How does topicalization in Asian Englishes differ from British English? And, finally: Why is it so frequent in particular in Indian English but less frequent in Hong Kong English?
