Disentangling topicality effects

This paper introduces the special issue Disentangling Topicality Effects. The contributions are the result of a selection from the homonymous workshop organized at the 55th meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, held in Bucharest on 25–26 August 2022. They offer empirical analyses of topic markers or topic-related constructions with the aim of critically exploring their functions and the relation of the latter to the concept of topic. Before analytically presenting the specific goals and results of each paper, we provide an overview of the category of topic. Without purporting to be exhaustive, we highlight the theoretical evolution of the concept, as well as some of the gaps that remain in its description, with the hope that this will contribute to a broader scholarly debate on the subject.