Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgments; 2. Introduction: Developmental continua; 3. The Belizean speech community and the use of English; 4. Creole acrolects as innovations; 5. The interaction of syntax and pragmatics in acrolets: Topic marking; 6. Sociolinguistic perspectives on Chinese; 7. Topic mechanisms in Chinese: An overview; 8. Literary and colloquial Putonghua; 9. Topic strategies in varieties of Putonghua as second dialects; 10. Conclusions: Pragmatic universals in second dialect acquisitiom; 11. Bibliography; 12. Index