ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of the empirical corpus study. First, the frequencies of topicalization in Hong Kong English, Indian English, Philippine English, Singapore English and, for comparison, British English, are presented. It is shown that Indian English speakers use topicalization most frequently, and Hong Kong English speakers use it least frequently. The second part of the chapter discusses the forms of topicalization with a focus on syntactic form and information status. The third part of the chapter presents and discusses the functions of topicalization. The main finding in this part is that topic continuity is the main function in Indian English, while emphasis and contrast are more frequent in other varieties. Topic shifting is noted as being an exceptionally rare function of topicalization. In addition to these findings, the chapter also presents topic persistence, the role of hanging topics, and in which ways Asian Englishes are different from British English with regard to topicalization.
