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WANG Wei, BAO Nandi
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DOI:10.17265/2161-623X/2026.06.002
Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
Topic chains serve as a vital textual organizational structure in Chinese discourse, typically comprising a topic and a sequence of subsequent comment clauses. Research indicates that the textual functions of topic chains in Chinese narrative texts are influenced by the relationships among their comment clauses. Topic chains can be categorized into four types based on the combinational relations of the comment clauses, with their textual functions ranked from strong to weak as follows: temporal topic chains > additive topic chains > causal topic chains > adversative topic chains. The classification of topic chains into distinct structural types and the analysis of their textual functions not only broaden the theoretical framework of Chinese topic chain research but also offer valuable insights for teaching Chinese as a second language, particularly in the context of text instruction.
topic chain, topic, comment clause, textual function, Chinese text teaching
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