Contrasting contrastive-topicalization strategies
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Published
18-10-2023
Dennis Ott
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9573-2348
Abstract
This paper offers a comparison and preliminary analysis of ‘topicalization’ strategies in German, Basque, and English. I argue that Basque and English topics at the left periphery are dislocated elements resumed by pronominal correlates, a configuration more directly evidenced in German. I propose an analysis of left-peripheral topics in Basque and English that capitalizes on parallels with left-dislocated XPs in German. Despite superficial differences, left-dislocation configurations in the three languages can be distinguished from inversion constructions and are united in their contrastive character. I argue that dislocated XPs are parenthetical sentence fragments, building on analogous proposals for German and other languages. The analysis is shown to be flexible enough to account for relevant surface differences between the languages while also providing a principled explanation for the contrastive import of left-peripheral topics.
How to Cite
Ott, Dennis. 2023. “Contrasting Contrastive-Topicalization Strategies”. Anuario Del Seminario De Filología Vasca "Julio De Urquijo" 56 (2):169-92. https://doi.org/10.1387/asju.24113.
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Keywords
dislocation, syntax, ellipsis, pragmatics, question under discussion
References
Arregi, Karlos. 2002. Focus on Basque movements. MIT doctoral dissertation. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8159.
Arregi, Karlos. 2010. Ellipsis in split questions. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 28. 539-592. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-010-9097-x.
Baltin, Mark. 1982. A landing-site theory of movement rules. Linguistic Inquiry 13. 1-38.
Barros, Matthew. 2014. Sluicing and identity in ellipsis. Rutgers University doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3VM49R5.
Büring, Daniel. 1997. The meaning of topic and focus. London: Routledge.
Büring, Daniel. 2003. On d-trees, beans, and B-accents. Linguistics & Philosophy 26. 511-545. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025887707652.
Büring, Daniel. 2016. (Contrastive) Topic. In Caroline Féry & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds.), The Oxford handbook of information structure, 64-85. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chomsky, Noam. 1977. On WH-movement. In Peter W. Culicover, Adrian Akmajian & Thomas Wasow (eds.), Formal syntax, 71-133. San Diego: Academic Press.
Chomsky, Noam, Ángel Gallego & Dennis Ott. 2019. Generative Grammar and the Faculty of Language: insights, questions, and challenges. Catalan Journal of Linguistics SI. 229-261. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.288.
Constant, Noah. 2014. Contrastive topic: meanings and realizations. University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/10.7275/5694973.0.
Elordieta, Arantzazu. 2001. Verb movement and constituent permutation in Basque. Utrecht: LOT.
Emonds, Joseph. 1979. Appositive relatives have no properties. Linguistic Inquiry 10. 211-243.
Fernández-Sánchez, Javier & Dennis Ott. 2020. Dislocations. Language & Linguistics Compass 14(9). e12391. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12391.
Féry, Caroline & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds.). 2016. The Oxford handbook of information structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Griffiths, James. 2019. A Q-based approach to clausal ellipsis. Glossa 4. article 12. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.653.
Heycock, Caroline. 1995. Asymmetries in reconstruction. Linguistic Inquiry 26. 547-570.
Irurtzun, Aritz. 2016. Strategies for argument and adjunct focalization in Basque. In Beatriz Fernández & Jon Ortiz de Urbina (eds.), Microparameters in the grammar of Basque, 243-264. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.13.09iru.
Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantics in Generative Grammar. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Jayaseelan, K. A. 2008. Topic, focus, and adverb positions in clause structure. Nanzan Linguistics 4. 43-68.
Krifka, Manfred. 2001. Non-novel indefinites in adverbial quantification. In Cleo Condoravdi & Gerard Renardel de Lavelette (eds.), Logical perspectives on language and information, 1-40. Stanford: CSLI.
Krifka, Manfred. 2008. Basic notions of information structure. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 3-4. 243-276.
Lasnik, Howard & Mamoru Saito. 1992. Move α. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Lasnik, Howard & Tim Stowell. 1991. Weakest crossover. Linguistic Inquiry 22. 687-720.
Merchant, Jason. 2001. The syntax of silence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Merchant, Jason. 2004. Fragments and ellipsis. Linguistics & Philosophy 27. 661-738. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-005-7378-3.
Miyagawa, Shigeru. 2017. Topicalization. Gengo Kenkyu 152. 1-29. https://doi.org/10.11435/gengo.152.0_1.
Onea, Edgar. 2016. Potential questions at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Leiden: Brill.
Onea, Edgar & Dennis Ott. 2022. Nominal appositives in grammar and discourse. Language 98. 359-391. http://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0004.
Ortiz de Urbina, Jon. 1989. Parameters in the grammar of Basque. Dordrecht: Foris.
Ortiz de Urbina, Jon. 2003. Word order. In Jose Ignacio Hualde & Jon Ortiz de Urbina (eds.), A grammar of Basque, 448-458. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ott, Dennis. 2014. An ellipsis approach to contrastive left-dislocation. Linguistic Inquiry 45(2). 269-303. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00155.
Ott, Dennis. 2015. Connectivity in left-dislocation and the composition of the left periphery. Linguistic Variation 15(2). 225-290. https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.15.2.04ott.
Ott, Dennis. 2016. Ellipsis in appositives. Glossa 1. article 34. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.37.
Ott, Dennis. 2017. The syntax and pragmatics of dislocation: a non-templatic approach. In Andrew Alexander Monti (ed.), Proceedings of the 2017 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association [online]. https://cla-acl.ca/pdfs/actes-2017/Ott_D.2017CLAProceedingsPaper.pdf.
Ott, Dennis. 2018. VP-fronting: movement vs. dislocation. The Linguistic Review 35(2). 243-282. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2017-0024.
Ott, Dennis. In progress. Peripheral fragments: dislocation in grammar and discourse. Ms.
Ott, Dennis & Mark de Vries. 2016. Right-dislocation as deletion. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 34. 641-690. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-015-9307-7.
Ott, Dennis & Volker Struckmeier. 2018. Particles and deletion. Linguistic Inquiry 49(2). 393-407. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00277.
Poole, Ethan. 2017. Movement and the semantic type of traces. University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/10.7275/10687243.0.
Postal, Paul M. 1994. Contrasting extraction types. Journal of Linguistics 30. 159-186. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226700016212.
Postal, Paul M. 1998. Three investigations of extraction. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6820.001.0001.
Riester, Arndt. 2019. Constructing QUD trees. In Malte Zimmermann, Klaus von Heusinger & Edgar Onea (eds.), Questions in discourse (vol. 2, Pragmatics), 163-192. Leiden: Brill.
Rizzi, Luigi. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In Liliane Haegeman (ed.), Elements of grammar, 281-337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Roberts, Craige. 2012. Information structure in disocurse: towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics. Semantics & Pragmatics 5. article 6. https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.5.6.
Ross, John R. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. PhD thesis, MIT.
Saltarelli, Mario. 1988. Basque. London: Croom Helm.
Speas, Margaret. 1990. Phrase structure in natural language. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Stanton, Juliet. 2016. Wholesale Late Merger in A-bar movement: evidence from preposition stranding. Lingusitic Inquiry 47(1). 89-126. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00205.
Thoms, Gary & George Walkden. 2019. vP-fronting with and without remnant movement. Journal of Linguistics 55(1). 161-214. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002222671800004X.
Tomioka, Satoshi. 2010. Contrastive topics operate on speech acts. In Malte Zimmermann & Caroline Féry (eds.), Information structure, 115-138. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Uriagereka, Juan. 1999. Minimal restrictions on Basque movements. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 17. 403-444. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006146705483.
Van Kuppevelt, Jan. 1995. Discourse structure, topicality, and questioning. Journal of Linguistics 31. 109-147. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002222670000058X.
Velleman, Leah & David Beaver. 2016. Question-based models of information structure. In Caroline Féry & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds.), The Oxford handbook of information structure, 86-107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wagner, M. 2012. Contrastive topics decomposed. Semantics & Pragmatics 5, article 8.
Ward, Gregory L. 1985. The semantics and pragmatics of preposing. PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania.
Weir, Andrew. 2014. Fragments and clausal ellipsis. University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/10.7275/5823750.0.
Arregi, Karlos. 2010. Ellipsis in split questions. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 28. 539-592. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-010-9097-x.
Baltin, Mark. 1982. A landing-site theory of movement rules. Linguistic Inquiry 13. 1-38.
Barros, Matthew. 2014. Sluicing and identity in ellipsis. Rutgers University doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3VM49R5.
Büring, Daniel. 1997. The meaning of topic and focus. London: Routledge.
Büring, Daniel. 2003. On d-trees, beans, and B-accents. Linguistics & Philosophy 26. 511-545. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025887707652.
Büring, Daniel. 2016. (Contrastive) Topic. In Caroline Féry & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds.), The Oxford handbook of information structure, 64-85. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chomsky, Noam. 1977. On WH-movement. In Peter W. Culicover, Adrian Akmajian & Thomas Wasow (eds.), Formal syntax, 71-133. San Diego: Academic Press.
Chomsky, Noam, Ángel Gallego & Dennis Ott. 2019. Generative Grammar and the Faculty of Language: insights, questions, and challenges. Catalan Journal of Linguistics SI. 229-261. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.288.
Constant, Noah. 2014. Contrastive topic: meanings and realizations. University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/10.7275/5694973.0.
Elordieta, Arantzazu. 2001. Verb movement and constituent permutation in Basque. Utrecht: LOT.
Emonds, Joseph. 1979. Appositive relatives have no properties. Linguistic Inquiry 10. 211-243.
Fernández-Sánchez, Javier & Dennis Ott. 2020. Dislocations. Language & Linguistics Compass 14(9). e12391. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12391.
Féry, Caroline & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds.). 2016. The Oxford handbook of information structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Griffiths, James. 2019. A Q-based approach to clausal ellipsis. Glossa 4. article 12. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.653.
Heycock, Caroline. 1995. Asymmetries in reconstruction. Linguistic Inquiry 26. 547-570.
Irurtzun, Aritz. 2016. Strategies for argument and adjunct focalization in Basque. In Beatriz Fernández & Jon Ortiz de Urbina (eds.), Microparameters in the grammar of Basque, 243-264. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.13.09iru.
Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantics in Generative Grammar. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Jayaseelan, K. A. 2008. Topic, focus, and adverb positions in clause structure. Nanzan Linguistics 4. 43-68.
Krifka, Manfred. 2001. Non-novel indefinites in adverbial quantification. In Cleo Condoravdi & Gerard Renardel de Lavelette (eds.), Logical perspectives on language and information, 1-40. Stanford: CSLI.
Krifka, Manfred. 2008. Basic notions of information structure. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 3-4. 243-276.
Lasnik, Howard & Mamoru Saito. 1992. Move α. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Lasnik, Howard & Tim Stowell. 1991. Weakest crossover. Linguistic Inquiry 22. 687-720.
Merchant, Jason. 2001. The syntax of silence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Merchant, Jason. 2004. Fragments and ellipsis. Linguistics & Philosophy 27. 661-738. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-005-7378-3.
Miyagawa, Shigeru. 2017. Topicalization. Gengo Kenkyu 152. 1-29. https://doi.org/10.11435/gengo.152.0_1.
Onea, Edgar. 2016. Potential questions at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Leiden: Brill.
Onea, Edgar & Dennis Ott. 2022. Nominal appositives in grammar and discourse. Language 98. 359-391. http://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0004.
Ortiz de Urbina, Jon. 1989. Parameters in the grammar of Basque. Dordrecht: Foris.
Ortiz de Urbina, Jon. 2003. Word order. In Jose Ignacio Hualde & Jon Ortiz de Urbina (eds.), A grammar of Basque, 448-458. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ott, Dennis. 2014. An ellipsis approach to contrastive left-dislocation. Linguistic Inquiry 45(2). 269-303. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00155.
Ott, Dennis. 2015. Connectivity in left-dislocation and the composition of the left periphery. Linguistic Variation 15(2). 225-290. https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.15.2.04ott.
Ott, Dennis. 2016. Ellipsis in appositives. Glossa 1. article 34. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.37.
Ott, Dennis. 2017. The syntax and pragmatics of dislocation: a non-templatic approach. In Andrew Alexander Monti (ed.), Proceedings of the 2017 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association [online]. https://cla-acl.ca/pdfs/actes-2017/Ott_D.2017CLAProceedingsPaper.pdf.
Ott, Dennis. 2018. VP-fronting: movement vs. dislocation. The Linguistic Review 35(2). 243-282. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2017-0024.
Ott, Dennis. In progress. Peripheral fragments: dislocation in grammar and discourse. Ms.
Ott, Dennis & Mark de Vries. 2016. Right-dislocation as deletion. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 34. 641-690. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-015-9307-7.
Ott, Dennis & Volker Struckmeier. 2018. Particles and deletion. Linguistic Inquiry 49(2). 393-407. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00277.
Poole, Ethan. 2017. Movement and the semantic type of traces. University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/10.7275/10687243.0.
Postal, Paul M. 1994. Contrasting extraction types. Journal of Linguistics 30. 159-186. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226700016212.
Postal, Paul M. 1998. Three investigations of extraction. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6820.001.0001.
Riester, Arndt. 2019. Constructing QUD trees. In Malte Zimmermann, Klaus von Heusinger & Edgar Onea (eds.), Questions in discourse (vol. 2, Pragmatics), 163-192. Leiden: Brill.
Rizzi, Luigi. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In Liliane Haegeman (ed.), Elements of grammar, 281-337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Roberts, Craige. 2012. Information structure in disocurse: towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics. Semantics & Pragmatics 5. article 6. https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.5.6.
Ross, John R. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. PhD thesis, MIT.
Saltarelli, Mario. 1988. Basque. London: Croom Helm.
Speas, Margaret. 1990. Phrase structure in natural language. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Stanton, Juliet. 2016. Wholesale Late Merger in A-bar movement: evidence from preposition stranding. Lingusitic Inquiry 47(1). 89-126. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00205.
Thoms, Gary & George Walkden. 2019. vP-fronting with and without remnant movement. Journal of Linguistics 55(1). 161-214. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002222671800004X.
Tomioka, Satoshi. 2010. Contrastive topics operate on speech acts. In Malte Zimmermann & Caroline Féry (eds.), Information structure, 115-138. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Uriagereka, Juan. 1999. Minimal restrictions on Basque movements. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 17. 403-444. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006146705483.
Van Kuppevelt, Jan. 1995. Discourse structure, topicality, and questioning. Journal of Linguistics 31. 109-147. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002222670000058X.
Velleman, Leah & David Beaver. 2016. Question-based models of information structure. In Caroline Féry & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds.), The Oxford handbook of information structure, 86-107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wagner, M. 2012. Contrastive topics decomposed. Semantics & Pragmatics 5, article 8.
Ward, Gregory L. 1985. The semantics and pragmatics of preposing. PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania.
Weir, Andrew. 2014. Fragments and clausal ellipsis. University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral dissertation. https://doi.org/10.7275/5823750.0.
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