Eintrag

Titel

Topics Detached on the Left: On 'Left Dislocation', 'Hanging Topic', and Related Constructions in German

Personen

Andreas Nolda

Jahr

2004

Typ

Aufsatz

Verlag

Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)

Ort

Berlin

Seiten

423 - 448

In

Proceedings of the Dislocated Elements Workshop, ZAS Berlin, November 2003

Schlagwörter

Konstruktion

Abstract

In this paper I argue that there are three distinct constructions in Modern German in which a `topic constituent¿ is detached to the left: (left-)dislocated topic (`left dislocation¿), (left-)attached topic (`mixed left dislocation¿), and (left-)hanging topic (`hanging topic¿). Presupposing the framework of Integrational Linguistics, I provide syntactic and semantic analyses for them. In particular, I propose that these constructions involve the syntactic function (syntactic) topic, which relates the topic constituent to the remaining part of the sentence. Dislocated and attached topic constituents function in addition as a strong or weak (syntactic) antecedent of some resumptive `d-pronoun¿ form. Dislocated topic, attached topic, and hanging topic are in turn contrasted with `free topics¿. Being sentential units of their own, the latter are syntactically unconnected to the following sentence. In particular, they are not topic constituents. 1 Introducing the Constructions According to common assumptions about Modern German,1 den Hans in (1) and der Hans in (2) are `topic constituents¿, located in a detached, though sentence-internal, position:2 (1) Den Hans, den kenne ich the ACC SG MASC Hans MASC this/that ACC SG MASC know I seit langem. for a long time `Hans I¿ve known for a long time.¿ (Cardinaletti 1988: 9) *I am grateful to Hans-Heinrich Lieb for discussing various theoretical aspects of my analysis. 1 See, inter alia, Cinque 1997; Cardinaletti 1988; Grohmann 1997; and Zifonun et al. 1997: 518¿520. 2 The interlinear glosses and the paraphrases of the examples cited from the literature are my own.

https://grammis.ids-mannheim.de/bdg/33970