Such is the world of linguistics. And often times, more terms are created with the hope that they will provide greater clarity in the terminology, but it only makes it worse!

Yes, what I have called emphasis for the sake of NT folks would actually be “marked focus”. Focus simply refers to the newly asserted information. Placing it in a marked position results in emphasis, or marked focus.

What I call a “frame of reference” has traditionally been called “topicalization”, which refers to the movement of the element (topicalizing it). However, constituents other than topics are topicalized. Randall Buth coined the term “contextualizing constituent” to describe information in this position, Simon Dik called it “P1″, and now in the current iteration of Functional Discourse Grammar they are “satellites”. Then there is Stephen Levinsohn, he calls them “points of departure”, following the Prague school’s original conception of topicalization.

I am not a coiner of terms, but I did so in this instance to use a term more accessible to non-linguists. Unfortunately, it adds to the clutter.

Question:
I know that the first is called Focus in linguistics rather than “emphasis.” Is the second Topic? Or is Topic a subset/type of frame of reference?