Left Dislocation in Hawrami and its Information Structure

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Linguistics, Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan

2 Linguistics student, Department of English Language and Literature and Linguistics, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan

10.22084/rjhll.2023.27863.2270

Abstract

Left Dislocation (LD) refers to the syntactic phenomenon in which an element is moved from its underlying position and placed at the beginning of the clause. A resumptive element occupies the underlying position of the LD-ed element. A primary objective of this study is to identify and investigate different types of Left dislocation constructions in Hawrami dialect, emphasizing their information structure. The research method is descriptive-analytical and data elicitation was conducted through interviews with native speakers. The data demonstrates that there exist two types of dislocation, that is, Clitic Left Dislocation and Contrastive Left Dislocation. Specifically, three main information functions are identified for Left Dislocation constructions: aboutness topic, contrastive topic and focus. In addition, Clitic Doubling and Topicalization as two constructions displaying surface resemblances to the Left Dislocation construction are discussed. Upon closer inspection, the identity hypothesis of Left Dislocation and Clitic Doubling is rejected.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  • معزی‌پور، فرهاد (1398). «بحثی در باب چپ‌نشانی فارسی و چالش‌های نظری آن برای دستور نقش و ارجاع». پژوهش‌های زبانشناسی، شماره 21.
  • Agouraki, Y. (1993). Spec–Head Licensing: The Case of Foci, Clitic Constructions and Polarity Items. A Case Study of Modern Greek. PhD diss., UCL.
  • Alxiadou, A. (2017). Left dislocation, The awilly Blackwell Companion to Syntax, second edition.
  • Anagnostopoulou, E. (1997). “Clitic Left Dislocation and Contrastive Left Dislocation.” In Materials on Left Dislocation, edited by Elena Anagnostopoulou, Henk van Riemsdijk, and Frans Zwarts, 151–192. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Büring, D. (1999). “Topic.” In Focus: Linguistic Cognitive and Computational Perspectives, edited by Peter Bosch and Rob van der Sand, 142-165. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Dobrovie-Sorin, C. (1990). “Clitic Doubling, Wh-Movement and Quantification in Romanian”. Linguistic Inquiry, 21: 351-397.
  • Frascarelli, M, and R Hinterhölzl. (2007). “Types of Topics in German and Italian.” In On Information Structure, Meaning and Form, edited by Susanne Winkler and Kerstin Schwabe, 87–116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Ganjavi, Sh. (2007). Direct Objects in Persian. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California.
  • Ghomeshi, J. (1997). Topics in Persian VPs. Lingua 102 (2-3): 133-167.
  • Grohmann, K. (2000). “A Movement Approach to Contrastive Left Dislocation.” Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, 25: 3-65.
  • Haegeman, L. (2001). DP Periphery and Clausal Periphery: Possessor Doubling in WF. MS, University of Lille. 32 Left Dislocation.
  • Karimi, S. (1989). Aspects of Persian Syntax, Specificity, and the Theory of Grammar. PhD dissertation, University of Washington.
  • Karimi, S. (2003). “Focus Movement and the Nature of Uninterpretable Features”. In Carnie, Andrew, Heidi & Mary Willie (eds), Formal Approaches to Functional Focus, John Benjamins; 297-306.
  • Kayne, R. (1994). The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Kuno, S. (1976). “Subject, Theme, and the Speaker’s Empathy: A Reexamination of Relativization Phenomen”. In Subject and Topic, edited by Charles N. Li, 417-444. New York, NY: Academic Press.
  • Pesetsky, D. (1987). “Wh-movement and Unselective Binding”. In The Representation of (In)-Definiteness, edited by Eric Reuland and Alice ter Meulen, 98-129. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Radford, A. (2009). Analyzing English Sentence, a Minimalist Approach, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Riemsdijk, Henk van. (1997). “Left Dislocation.” In Materials on Left Dislocation, edited by Elena. Anagnostopoulou, Henk van Riemsdijk, and Frans Zwarts, 1–10. Amterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Rizzi, L. (1997). On the Fine Structure of the Left Periphery. In Elements of Grammar: A Handbook in Generative Syntax, edited by Liliane Haegeman, 281-337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
  • Sturgeon, A. (2008). The Left Periphery: The Interaction of Syntax, Pragmatics and Prosody in Czech. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics