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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 The Notion of Topic
Both linguists and sociologists hold the opinion that it is hard to give topic a precisedefinition. In this part, some of the uses of the term topic in the study of discourse will beexamined again. Topic has been a controversial notion since its early appearance. AsGomez-Gonzalez points out，studies on topic or theme have been characterized by terminologicalprofijsion and confusion because very different positions have been taken on the appropriatecriteria for the definition and identification of the notions of topic^^lAlthough topic is not explicitly identified, it is the most frequently used，unexplained termin the analysis of discourse. A theoretical notion of topic is explored by Brown and Yule[3] . Thenotion of topic relates to the representations of discourse content [3 68]. But they also suggest thereis still vagueness of the definition which veritably makes the awareness of the distinctionsimportant. They consider the notion of topic relates to representation of discourse content. In thatmany representations proposed are based on a hierarchical organization of discourse content.They critically characterizing topic in terms of the top-most elements in the hierarchicalrepresentation They also propose that the notion of topic is clearly an intuitivelysatisfactory way of describing the unifying principle which makes one stretch of discourse aboutsomething and the next stretch about something else，for it is appealed to very frequently in thediscourse analysis literature. Jan Renkema defined topic as what a discourse，a discoursefragment or a sentence is about. It is the shortest summary of a discourse，the main proposition ofa paragraph or what is commented on in a sentence. The term topic means the "aboutness" of aunit of discourse.

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2.2 Previous Researches on Topical Strategies
Topical strategies are the strategies used by the speakers to display how they deal withtopics. By using the topical strategies we can find out whether the speakers introduce, stop orshift the topic is related or not to the current topic.Gardner presents an original classification of topic development^] including the followingcatalogues: topic introduction, topic maintenance and topic change. For topic maintenance, thereare three processes to maintain a topic, namely 1) continuation，in which the primarypropositions or presuppositions contained in an exchange are linked to the immediatelypreceding exchange; 2) shift, in which there are two types, one is shift through expansion of thedomain of the topic，called shading，one is shift away from the topic in preparation for a newtopic, referred to as fading; and 3) recycling, related to a renewal of the topic through picking upan earlier point in the development of the same topic. Topic change includes two situations; oneis called full-blown change where a new topic showing no links to any previous talks is produced.Structurally, topic change is the same as topic introduction. Reintroduction involves revival of atopic that has already been dropped before.
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