De Cat, C. (2007) French dislocation without movement. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 25 (3). pp. 485-534. ISSN 1573-0859
Full text available as:Abstract
This paper revisits the classic tests for movement that have been proposed in the literature on dislocated structures, arguing that discourse factors have a significant impact on the outcome of such tests. On this basis, French dislocation is shown to be a syntactically unified phenomenon involving both Left- and Right-Dislocation, irrespective of whether it is resumed by a clitic or a non-clitic element. The epitome of interface phenomena, French dislocation is argued to be the output of the interaction between syntax and the discourse component, requiring only a very limited contribution of narrow syntax: all that is required is that the dislocated element be merged by adjunction to a Discourse Projection (defined as a maximal projection with root properties). No agreement or checking of a designated (e.g. topic) feature is necessary, hence no syntactic movement of any sort need be postulated. The so-called resumptive element is argued to be a full-fledged pronoun rather than a true syntactic resumptive. The relation between the dislocated element and its resumptive is captured in terms of discourse coreference. The core syntactic and interpretive properties of left and right-dislocation are shown to be identical; differences between the two configurations are shown to derive straightforwardly from the properties of the two sides of the clause periphery.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | (CL)LD – (Clitic) Left Dislocation, HTLD – Hanging Topic Left Dislocation, RD – Right Dislocation, RP – Resumptive Pronoun |
| Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts (Leeds) > School of Modern Languages and Cultures (Leeds) > Linguistics & Phonetics (Leeds) |
| Depositing User: | Dr Cecile De Cat |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Apr 2010 13:03 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Feb 2013 17:06 |
| Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11049-007-9023-z |
| Status: | Published |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Identification Number: | 10.1007/s11049-007-9023-z |
| URI: | http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/10748 |
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