topicalize

/ˈtɑpɪkəˌlaɪz/
verb
  1. To make something the main subject or topic of discussion.
    • The teacher tried to topicalize climate change in the classroom debate.
    • In the meeting, she topicalized the budget cuts to get everyone's attention.
    • The news report topicalized the election results for the first segment.
  2. In linguistics, to place a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence to emphasize it as the topic.
    • The student learned how to topicalize a noun phrase for emphasis in her grammar class.
    • In English, you can topicalize an object by moving it to the front, like 'That book, I read yesterday.'
    • Linguists study how different languages topicalize elements in a sentence.
Antonyms