Abstract
Subject and topical share certain interpretative properties, which underline the partial analogy between the subject-predicate relationship and the topical-comment relationship. On the other hand,subject and topical differ in many respects : in terms of syntactic position, morphological marking, fine-grained interpretive properties. A detailed analysis of the similarities and differences between the two notions, as well as the variations observable across languages, is therefore essential in the study of interactions between syntax and interpretation. The course will address these issues using the classic approach of Li and Thompson (1976) and the language typology derived from it.
