CHINESE TOPIC IN SHI DINGXU’S WORKS
The notions “topic” and “commentary” over the years evoke robust discussions among the linguists. Though these terms were studied in great detail the opinions on their role at the sentence and discourse level still differ. Among the different topic structure conceptions including classical, syntactic, textual, psycholinguistic, typological-stylistic and universal interpretations the works of the professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shi Dingxu are worth special mention. The article describes Shi Dingxu’s basic conceptions of the so called “Chinese topic” represented in his papers of 1998 and 2000.