In Yoda\u2019s sentences, the topic comes first. In linguistics<\/a>, the topic of the sentence is the word or phrase that represents what the sentence is about. The other parts of the sentence provide extra details on this topic. Through a syntactic process called topicalisation<\/a>, the topic is brought to the front of the sentence.<\/p>\n Topicalisation is uncommon in English, but can be used for emphasis. Generally, English sentences follow this word order: subject then verb then object. For example: Anna (subject) ate (verb) a biscuit (object). What is the topic of this sentence? In fact, it could be any of those sentence elements. It depends on which information the speaker thinks is most important. <\/p>\n If the speaker wishes to place emphasis on what they have chosen as the topic of the sentence, topicalisation is a useful tool. Consider the difference between these two sentences:<\/p>\n The biscuit was eaten by Anna.<\/p>\n It was Anna who ate the biscuit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In the first sentence, what was eaten is important. In the second sentence, who ate the biscuit is important. <\/p>\n Topicalisation is closely linked with question words \u2013 who, what, where, why and sometimes how. Each of these questions picks out a different topic. If you were asked, \u201cWhat did Anna eat?\u201d, it would probably feel odd to answer, \u201cIt was Anna who ate the biscuit\u201d. This is because the topic of that response focuses on who, not what. Subconsciously, on a linguistic level, we understand what the topic of the answer should be, even though we may not be used to thinking about sentences in terms of topics. <\/p>\n There is an important difference between topicalisation in English and how Yoda structures his sentence. For Yoda, topicalisation only involves moving the topic; the rest of the word order remains intact. Yet, in English, we need some extra words to facilitate the topic moving. In English, it sounds much more natural to say, \u201cPatience is what you must have, my young Padawan\u201d, although this is very unlike Yoda.<\/p>\n British Sign Language (BSL) is the primary or preferred language of the British Deaf community. There are around 151,000 BSL users, of whom 87,000 are deaf<\/a>. <\/p>\n A common misconception is that BSL has the same grammar as English. BSL has its own syntax, separate from English and from other sign languages. BSL is what linguists call a topic-comment language<\/a>. A sentence commonly starts with the topic and is then followed by further details that build on the topic, known as the comment. <\/p>\n No matter whether the topic is a subject, verb or object, it comes first. So, how can you sign the sentence \u201cAnna ate a biscuit\u201d? Using our question words as a guide, we can identify three possible topics: Who ate the biscuit? What did Anna do? What did Anna eat? For each of these scenarios, you sign the topic first, followed by the rest of the sentence:<\/p>\n BSL: Anna eat biscuit.<\/p>\n (Translation: \u201cIt was Anna who ate the biscuit.\u201d)<\/p>\n BSL: Eat biscuit Anna.<\/p>\n (Translation: \u201cWhat Anna did was eat the biscuit.\u201d)<\/p>\n BSL: Biscuit Anna eat.<\/p>\n (Translation: \u201cIt was a biscuit that Anna ate.\u201d)<\/p>\n As with Yoda\u2019s English, in BSL, topicalisation elegantly rearranges the elements in the sentence, without the need for extra words. As well as a prominent position, topics can be marked with so-called \u201cnon-manual features\u201d<\/a>, such as a head nod or widened eyes during the topic sign, or a pause after signing the topic. <\/p>\n The topic-comment structure<\/a> is a very important aspect of BSL grammar. Unfortunately, it is something that hearing learners can struggle to use consistently. In the worst case, you may feel tempted to give up and use English word order instead. But this isn\u2019t BSL, and it could make your signing unclear and difficult to follow for a Deaf person.<\/p>\n Learning a language with a different grammar might seem difficult, but it is associated with many benefits for the brain, such as increased creativity and improved working memory<\/a>. It is an opportunity to think about how to express your thoughts differently, which might develop your creative problem solving. <\/p>\n Language is also a powerful social and cultural tool for connecting with other people. In 2021, a survey<\/a> by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People found that people who are deaf or have hearing loss are twice as likely to experience mental health problems compared to people without hearing loss. The survey reported<\/a> that nearly 47% of respondents felt excluded in everyday life and 33% felt lonely. By learning some BSL, you are working towards making our society more inclusive of people who are deaf.<\/p>\n Rather than getting lost with verb or subject order, remember: talk like Yoda. Start with what is the most important part of the sentence and then provide details. As I\u2019m sure the wise Yoda would agree, sign language learn you should.<\/p>\n Victoria-Elliot Bush does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m not surprised that Talk Like Yoda Day exists. Over 40 years since his Star Wars debut (puppeteered and voiced by Frank Oz), Yoda remains a recognisable figure in pop culture. This is in part due to his distinctive and frequently imitated version of English. What stands out about Yoda\u2019s speech is his unusual word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Yoda and BSL<\/h2>\n
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