(linguistics) emphasis placed on the topic or focus of a sentence by preposing it to the beginning of the sentence; placing the topic at the beginning of the sentence is typical for English;
"`Those girls, they giggle when they see me' and `Cigarettes, you couldn't pay me to smoke them' are examples of topicalization"
美
[tɒpɪkəlaɪ'zeɪʃən]
