How do you explain the usage of は in English? (Part 2)

continued from How do you explain the usage of は in English?

I know は is a topic marker and that a topic is different from the subject. The problem, however, is that it's hard for me to differentiate the two of them.

From what I remember in my English class years ago, every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate. A sentence tells us something about the subject in the form of a predicate. With that in mind, I will know the subject by asking WHO, WHAT, WHERE is the sentence about. On the other hand, I will know the predicate by asking, WHAT ABOUT the who, what, where.

Now that I've figured out what a subject is, my question is: How is a subject different from a topic?

According to this article, a topic has two characteristics. First, it is always definite. Second, it doesn't have to have a relationship with the predicate.

While I'm beginning to form some sort of idea as to what a topic is, I still can't say for certain that I can differentiate it from the subject. Fortunately, after hours of research, I found some articles that cleared things out for me. Apparently, 日本語 is a topic driven language wherein the subject is implied in its sentence.

A topic driven sentence with an implied subject? How does that work?

Well, according to this article, it is best to liken the particle は to the English expressions "As for..." or "Speaking of...". So, with that in mind:

例一：　今日／は／忙しいです。
　　　　Today／topic marker／is busy.
　　　　「As for today, (I) am busy.」

例二：　先週／は／家族と／昼食／を／食べました。
　　　　Last week／topic marker／with family／lunch／DO* marker／ate.
　　　　「Speaking of last week, (I) ate lunch with my family.」

例三：　毎土曜日／私／は／学校／へ／行きます。
　　　　Every Saturday／I／topic marker／school／direction marker／go.
　　　　「As for me, (I) go school every Saturday.」

例四：　カレンさん／は／日本人じゃありません。
　　　　Ms. Karen／topic marker／is not Japanese.
　　　　「Speaking of Ms. Karen, (she) is not Japanese.」

As you can see, the (subject) in the four examples are never mentioned in the 日本語 sentences.

Now that I have a better idea as to how は works, I think the correct sentence patterns in my previous entry are:

例五：
○　今日は忙しいですか。　「As for today, are (you) busy?」
○　今日　あなたは忙しいですか。　「As for you, are (you) busy today?」

例六：
○　去年は日本語の本をもらいました。　「As for last year, (I) received a Japanese book.」
○　去年　私は日本語の本をもらいました。  「As for me, (I) received a Japanese book last year.」

The following patterns are incorrect. Not only does it not make any sense, it is redundant as well as ambiguous as to what the topic is in the sentence.

例七：
×　あなたは今日は忙しいですか。　「As for you, as for today, are (you) busy?」
×　私は去年は日本語の本をも らいました。　「As for me, as for last year, (I) received a Japanese book.」
---
DO* | Direct Object