Left Dislocation Research Articles

PRAGMATIC ALTERNATIVE CONSTRUCTION (FRONTING, LEFT DISLOCATION, AND TOPICALIZATION) IN LAMALERA DIALECT

Abstract
 
 Left dislocation construction, fronting construction and topicalization construction are universal linguistic alternations. Nevertheless these three constructions have characteristics that are very different from one language to another. This distinction depends on the language system of every language. This research data is obtained from the result of conversation between speakers of Lamaholot dialect of Lamalera. The result of data analysis proves that LDLL has three alternative constructions. The use of real language in everyday communication, this alternative construction ear has a gradative usage frequency. Left dislocation construction has the lowest usage frequency while the construction of precision and topicalization construction is significant. However, the construction of forging and parsing differed from one to another. Left dislocation construction is the advancement of peripheral arguments while topicalization construction is the construction of core argument prediction. The construction of topicalization is a passive-like construction (derivative construction).
 Keywords: Left dislocation construction, fronting construction and topicalization construction

Time and Emergence in Grammar: Dislocation, Topicalization, and Hanging Topic in French Talk-in-Interaction by Simona Pekarek Doehler et al

Reviews 283 phrase (verb placement, wh-questions, subject clefts), the verbal domain (transitivity, expression of location, motion event construal), and the nominal domain (adjective placement, gender assignment and concord). Well-grounded theoretically, these enlightening studies also help understand practical learning difficulties that students and teachers face in the classroom. Two such examples are Treffer-Daller and Tidball’s study on the acquisition of L2 French (a verb-framed language) by intermediate and advanced Anglophone learners (English being a satellite-framed language), focusing on path, manner, caused motion, and deictic verbs in elicited narratives, and Herschensohn and Arteaga’s investigation of the development of the determiner phrase in the L2 French of three advanced Anglophone learners, focusing on gender and nominal agreement features (absent in English) as well as definite and count features (present in English). The results highlight that the acquisition process undergoes complex interactions of transfer effects, including improperly acquired L1 features and L1 attrition. For instance, in Treffers-Daller and Tidball’s study, path was the only aspect of motion that intermediate learners were able to acquire. Such findings provide further insight into interlanguage as a tangled locus of language processing, far from a linear path from L1 to L2. In this constellation of French-focused L1/L2 language combinations, Frolova’s investigation on direct object omission in child Russian is decidedly not French-centric and seems at odds with the remaining studies. Furthermore, if the lack of a coordinated format across studies may be justified by diverse topics and investigative methods, some (even minimal) signposting would have benefited readers—graduate students and linguists interested in bilingualism and language interface phenomena. This volume is an excellent contribution relating these phenomena to critical questions such as the role of Universal Grammar, transfer, and the interaction between language acquisition and language change. Wake Forest University (NC) Stéphanie Pellet Pekarek Doehler, Simona, Elwys De Stefani, and Anne-Sylvie Horlacher. Time and Emergence in Grammar: Dislocation, Topicalization, and Hanging Topic in French Talk-in-Interaction. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2015. ISBN 978-90-2722638 -9. Pp. vii + 275. Everyday spoken French represents fertile ground for research on word order variation. This volume brings a Conversation Analytic (CA) perspective to several pragmatically marked word orders, including left dislocation (Marie, elle vient), right dislocation (elle vient, Marie), topicalization (ça je t’explique après), and hanging topics (le deuil, il faut un peu de temps). The insights are numerous and valuable, although other aspects of the work troubled this reviewer. These constructions—and dislocations in particular—have generated significant previous research, in both a discourse-functional and a generative perspective. To the former we owe important understandings about how dislocation (for example) signals certain information structural phenomena, such as topic shift. The latter has demonstrated how dislocated and topicalized constituents are affiliated structurally with clauses. This volume mostly casts aside such familiar reference points, focusing instead almost exclusively on interactional aspects, such as turn taking. Although this emphasis on interaction is to be expected in CA research, the reader is sometimes left with the (erroneous) impression that little previous work has been conducted on these topics.As an example, the authors’claim (14) that much previous research has privileged nonconversational or invented data is only partly true, ignoring significant studies on spontaneous spoken data by scholars like Lambrecht, Kerr, or Ashby. The authors convincingly demonstrate how left dislocation often occurs in overlap, allowing a participant to take the floor while demonstrating a link with the prior turn. Other interactional uses of left dislocation include delaying a dispreferred response and proffering an assessment. Right dislocations offer a means of proffering assessments or ending a turn (a point also made by Ashby, 1988). Speakers also use topicalization for assessments (ça je trouve bien), and the authors’ approach nicely captures the subtle difference in epistemic stance between je sais pas (indicating disagreement) and ça je sais pas (indicating genuine uncertainty).Whereas some previous studies would have suggested analyzing hanging topic as a subset of left dislocation, it is treated as a separate construction here; some functions that the authors note include listing, signaling contrast, and, in the case specifically of moi c’est [...], expressing personal points of...

Left dislocation in main and subordinate clauses

Left dislocation is a common feature in the Nordic languages. In main clauses, a lexical noun phrase is positioned in a dislocated position in the left periphery, while a pronoun occurs in the clause-internal, prefield position, i.e., in the position preceding the finite verb. This is described by Faarlund et al (1997:904-5) for Norwegian, Teleman et al (1999 4:440–447) for Swedish and Hansen and Heltoft (2011:1828) for Danish.

Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Double Avulsion in a Collegiate American Football Athlete: A Case Report

An 18-year-old male collegiate American football player with no previous medical history of knee injury suffered an acute left patellofemoral dislocation during preseason practice. Diagnostic imaging and exploratory surgery revealed multiple avulsions of the medial patellofemoral ligament as well as significant lateral patellar tilt and chondromalacia of the left patella. A surgical repair of the ligament was performed as well as a lateral release and debridement of multiple structures. With no rehabilitative protocols available for multiple avulsion repair, a protocol for a single avulsion repair of the medial patellofemoral ligament was used with some exceptions. The patient returned to full-contact American football activities at 5 months postoperation with no reported complications. These findings indicate that a rehabilitation protocol for single avulsion repair may be appropriate for multiple avulsions as well.

The semantics of Spanish Clitic Left Dislocations with epithets

AbstractRioplatense Spanish

Ulnar Claw-Hand Related Neglected Post-Traumatic Anterior Shoulder Joint Dislocation

Shoulder joint is the most frequently dislocated joint. Humeral head dislocation pushed the nerve toward medial side. Neglected shoulder dislocation is difficult to manage and requires extensive procedures to obtain good functional outcome. In the case of negligence, it is often found loss of the anterior capsule due to absorption of the capsule. Nerve lesions, in particular the ulnar nerve, often do not receive attention. Clinically, it often occurred from neurapraxia to severe condition like claw-hand deformity. In my experience of a neglected case, there was a 53-year-old woman who presented to the orthopaedic clinic with a left anterior shoulder fracture dislocation following a fall onto the right shoulder and upper right arm. She had treated herself at home for around six months before visiting the clinic. She also complained of some deformities on her ring and little fingers, known as ulnar claw-hand. Numbness and tingling on her left hand especially on the ring and little fingers were observed. These findings were carefully documented and the patient was aware of these persistent abnormalities. She had electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction velosity (NCV) examination evidence of persistent ulnar nerve deficit, performed before and after surgery. We may conclude that this case highlights the need for awareness of the potential for nerve damage following shoulder dislocation. After treating the dislocation, the functional and EMG results are very satisfactory.

The semantics of Spanish Clitic Left Dislocations with epithets

The semantics of Spanish Clitic Left Dislocations with epithets

Look before you move

The present study examines whether, as proposed by the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), the syntax-discourse interface is especially vulnerable to non-native optionality even at very advanced levels. I focus on the acquisition of Clitic Left Dislocation in Spanish (CLLD), a structure that involves both syntax and discourse, when it combines with other structures at the left periphery (iterative topics, Fronted Focus, andwh-constructions). CLLD is a realization of topicalization requiring the integration of syntactic and discourse knowledge. This study provides data from an audio-visual rating task completed by 120 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels and 27 monolingual native speakers. Results showed evidence that the most advanced learners had acquired the restrictions of these structures in a native-like way and supports López’s (2009) syntactic analysis of CLLD, whereby CLLD is generated through movement so that the pragmatic features [+anaphor]/[+contrast] can be assigned to the dislocated element.

ON ESTABLISHING COREFERENCE IN LEFT DISLOCATION CONSTRUCTIONS

The phenomenon of left dislocation (LD) has received relatively little attention in the generative literature. In Government & Binding theory and early versions of Minimalist Syntax, the left-dislocated expression is conventionally taken to be base-generated in its sentence-initial surface position and the resumptive pronoun in some other position in the structure. The establishment of an (obligatory) coreferential relationship between these expressions is usually ascribed to a special binding mechanism, A-bar binding, though this issue is seldom explicitly addressed in LD studies. The aim of this paper is to present, in broad outline, an alternative analysis of LD constructions, one that incorporates the core hypotheses of the nominal shell analysis of coreferential constructions put forward by Oosthuizen (2013a,b). On this analysis, the resumptive pronoun and the referring expression that is to serve as its antecedent are base-generated in a nominal shell structure which is headed by a presentational focus light noun, a functional category belonging to a natural class of identificational elements. The coreferential relationship between the two expressions is established within this structure by means of phi-feature valuation. The antecedent is subsequently raised into the left-periphery of the sentence, where it surfaces as the left-dislocated expression. It is claimed that such an analysis can account for the phenomenon of obligatory coreferentiality in LD constructions in terms of formal devices that are either already provided by or compatible with the basic assumptions and concepts of Minimalist Syntax. A tentative proposal is also put forward to account for the word order in LD constructions, specifically for the fact that left-dislocation does not bring about (surface) subject-verb inversion in V2 languages such as Afrikaans.

LEFT DISLOCATION AND ITS TRANSLATION IN SOME GERMANIC LANGUAGES

In terms of the theoretical framework of an influential recent model of Bible translation, Left Dislocation (=LD) can be regarded as a “communicate clue” that translators must try to interpretively resemble in their target text translation. This exploratory study investigates how twenty translations (fifteen English, three Afrikaans, one German, and one Dutch) have interpretively resembled (or not) nine prototypical constructions, and one less prototypical one, from the book of Genesis. It has been found that, firstly, translations on the formal equivalent pole tend to interpretively resemble LD constructions. If the LD tends to be very prototypical, this tendency is displayed even by some translations towards the functional equivalent pole. Secondly, even in the case of prototypical instances, translations on the functional equivalent pole, however, tend not to interpretively resemble the construction. In these cases, it could be argued that they are not serving the very goal that they as a rule want to accomplish—that is, to provide readers with a translation that is easy to read and process. Thirdly, the structure of English, Afrikaans and Dutch—in contrast to German—often appears to require a construal that does not formally reflect the pronominal resumption of the LD constituent in the matrix clause. Fronting the LD constituent is often used, and sometimes a pause after the fronted (i.e. then dislocated) constituent is signaled by means of a comma or a dash. These findings concur with those of some of the other papers in this volume. Resumption, for example, is not always the primary distinctive feature of a LD construction; a tonal pause between the LD and its matrix clause may also suffice. There are also historical explanations as to why some of the functions of fronting and LD constructions overlap.

LEFT DISLOCATION IN NORTH-EASTERN NEO-ARAMAIC DIALECTS

The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects, which are the focus of this paper, were spoken across a wide area encompassing northern Iraq, north-west Iran, south-eastern Turkey, Armenia and Georgia. In these spoken dialects a distinction should be made between two major types of Left Dislocation (LD) structures. In one type the initial item is prosodically and grammatically integrated with what follows. The initial item is prosodically integrated in that it is not separated from what follows by an intonation group boundary. The initial item is resumed in the clause by a pronominal affix, as opposed to an independent pronoun or a full nominal. Such initial items have all the semantic and functional properties of normal grammatical subjects. These are referred to as LD1 structures. A distinct type of construction is where the initial item is less integrated prosodically and/or structurally with what follows. This is referred to as an LD2 structure. This includes cases where the initial item is separated from what follows by an intonation group boundary. Another strategy for disjoining the initial item from the rest of the clause is the resumption of the initial item by an independent pronoun. Moreover, an additional structure in which the initial element is less integrated into the clause than LD1 constructions is where the resumptive element is a full nominal rather than a pronoun. An initial item in a LD2 structure is restricted to nominals that are topical, i.e. they function as the informational pivot or starting point of the following clause and typically their referent is identifiable from the context. The initial item of an LD1 structure, however, can have a variety of other types of status, including narrow focus. In this respect they correspond functionally to clause-initial subjects. When a clause-initial item has topical status, whether it be subject, an LD1 item or an LD2 item, the basic function of the construction is to express the onset of a discourse section and, if it occurs within the body of the discourse, a disjunction of some kind from what precedes. This includes not only topic shift, but also other types of discourse shifts, such as foreground to background or change in the level of description. In some cases, an LD1 construction is more normal than a construction with the grammatical subject in initial position, and indeed in some cases it is obligatory. This has given rise to diachronic change whereby the original grammatical subject of the construction has been re-analysed as having a different syntactic status.

LEFT DISLOCATION: A TYPOLOGICAL OVERVIEW

The Left Dislocation construction is a typologically universal phenomenon that has received detailed analysis, from both formal and functional perspectives, in a number of genetically and areally diverse languages. The present paper aims to provide a general overview of this cross-linguistic research with a concentration on: 1) the comparison of syntactico-semantic features of LD across languages, 2) the generalized cross-linguistic patterns and categories attested for LD, and 3) the explanations offered for LD in terms of its motivation and function in discourse. Accordingly, the paper will proceed in two parts. The first part will entail a brief survey of the syntactic and semantic attributes that have established LD as a typological category. In light of these attributes, linguists generally distinguish between two broad types of LD on the basis of particular syntactic patterns and constraints. Thus, a general description of these types is provided, along with a brief description of several less prototypical LD types. The second part of the paper will focus on the explanation of LD both in terms of the cognitive and contextual constraints that motivate its use in discourse, as well as the communicative goals and pragmatic effects achieved by the construction in particular contexts.

Topics at the left edge of infinitive clauses in Spanish and Catalan

This paper deals with clitic left dislocation (CLLD) in infinitive clauses (IC) in Spanish and Catalan. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, I provide evidence that CLLDed constituents can target the left edge of ICs, contrary to previous claims in the literature (e.g. Ojea 2013). The results should not be surprising, considering that Romance CLLD is not a Main Clause Phenomena (Jiménez-Fernández & Miyagawa 2013, Authier & Haegeman 2015). Second, this sets aside CLLD from other left peripheral fronting operations in these languages, which are systematically unavailable at the left edge of IC. I argue that the data presented here does not obviously follow from any current approach about the deficiency of non-finite domains. I defend, instead, that the data can be accounted for under Ott (2015)'s proposal about CLLD, where the dislocated constituent is the remnant of a clause ellipsis operation and it is paratactically integrated in the host clause. Further, I will speculate about how this approach can account for the linear positions where CLLDed phrases can occur.

A FUNCTIONAL PROFILE OF LEFT DISLOCATION IN BIBLICAL HEBREW

The primary aim of this paper is to provide a functional profile of verbal Left Dislocation (=LD) constructions in the Torah and Former Prophets (Genesis–2Kings). As a precursor, however, an abbreviated syntactico-semantic description of LD constructions within the aforementioned corpus is provided. This description consists of seven overlapping constructional schemas (i.e. construction types) that form a radial network around a typologically prototypical schema. Accordingly, each schematic type is more or less prototypical depending on its family resemblance (i.e. shared attributes) to the prototype. In light of this formal profile, and of the fact that grammatical constructions are equal parts form and function, the remainder and central focus of the paper will entail a detailed functional explanation of LD. This functional profile will consist of two complementary parts: 1) the central factors motivating the use of LD, and 2) the prototypical and non-prototypical discourse-pragmatic functions achieved by the construction in discourse. Together with the formal description, this functional explanation reveals a textured profile of the LD category, one that consists of a unified radial network of overlapping constructional types.

Analyse pragmatico-discursive des SN disloqués à droite du français parlé

The aim of this paper is to provide a corpus-based analysis of right dislocation constructions in spontaneous spoken French. Previous researches describe these constructions mainly as a possibility to signal continuation or maintenance of an already established topic relation, contrary to left dislocations that signal announcement or establishment of a new topic relation between a referent and a predication. We will show that if topic continuation or maintenance remains a frequent function of right dislocation of noun phrases, it can nevertheless encode new topic relations of referentially active or accessible entities, particularly in interrogative constructions. We will also provide some elements of analysis of right dislocation of pronouns.

Ledstillingsvariation i amerikadanske hovedsætninger med topikalisering

Danish qualifies as a V2-language. Inversion of subject and finite verb is mandatory in topicalized declarative main clauses (topic-V-S). In American Danish, however, topicalized declaratives show standardlike word order to a large extent, but also considerable non-inversion (topic-S-V). This word order variation mirrors the syntactical patterns of Danish and American English. Based on an American Danish corpus of 103.000 words, we pinpoint the syntactical contexts that are affected by variation, those resistant to change and influential factors. Sentence-initial adverbial connectors and topicalized English elements favour English word order, while left dislocation constructions with an anaphoric particle are very resistant to change and there is a (weak) correlation between longer topics and Standard Danish word order. Sociolinguistics variables do not show any effect at all.

The management of cohesion in written narratives in students with specific language impairment: Differences between childhood and adolescence

The goal of this study was to investigate the management of cohesion by children and adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) when writing a narrative in a communicative situation. Twelve children with SLI (from 7 to 11 years old) and 12 adolescents with SLI (from 12 to 18 years old) were chronological age-matched with 24 typically developing (TD) children and 24 TD adolescents. All participants attended mainstream classes: children in elementary schools and adolescents in middle and high schools. Analyses of cohesion focused on both density and diversity of connectives, punctuation marks and anaphors. Results attested that children with SLI were greatly impaired in their management of written cohesion and used specific forms previously observed in narrative speech such as left dislocations. By contrast, and not expected, the management of written cohesion by adolescents with SLI was close to that of their TD peers. The communicative writing situation we set up, which engaged participants to take into account the addressee, also made possible for adolescents with SLI to manage cohesion in writing.

THE FINE-TUNING OF LINGUISTIC EXPECTATIONS OVER THE COURSE OF L2 LEARNING

This study investigates the degree to which native-English-speaking learners of Spanish can generate expectations for information likely to occur in upcoming portions of an unfolding linguistic signal. We examine Spanish clitic left dislocation, a long-distance dependency between a topicalized object and an agreeing clitic, whose felicity depends on the discourse. Using a self-paced reading task, we tested the predictions of the shallow structure hypothesis (Clahsen & Felser, 2006a, 2006b) and the reduced ability to generate expectations hypothesis (Grüter, Rohde, & Schafer, 2014). Learners successfully demonstrated sensitivity to the violation of expectations set up by the syntactic and discourse context. In addition, the behavior of the second language (L2) learners was dependent on proficiency: the higher their proficiency, the more their behavior mirrored native-speaker processing. These results support a view of SLA in which knowledge of L2 discourse-grammatical relationships is acquired slowly over the course of L2 learning.

The Interface of Syntax with Pragmatics and Prosody in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

In order to study problems of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with morphosyntax, we investigated twenty high-functioning Greek-speaking children (mean age: 6;11) and twenty age- and language-matched typically developing children on environments that allow or forbid object clitics or their corresponding noun phrase. Children with ASD fell behind typically developing children in comprehending and producing simple clitics and producing noun phrases in focus structures. The two groups performed similarly in comprehending and producing clitics in clitic left dislocation and in producing noun phrases in non-focus structures. We argue that children with ASD have difficulties at the interface of (morpho)syntax with pragmatics and prosody, namely, distinguishing a discourse prominent element, and considering intonation relevant for a particular interpretation that excludes clitics.

Bilateral Shoulder Combined with Unilateral Knee Dislocation After a Fall

A 54-year-old overweight woman presented to the emergency department (ED) complaining of severe pain and lack of movement in both shoulders and her left knee. Her medical history revealed that the episode began after slipping on the wet floor in the bathroom. The first dislocation of the knee joint occurred during the fall when she lost her balance, and the second occurred when she tried to use her arms to avoid hitting her head on the wet floor. There was no history of connective tissue disease, seizure, or prior dislocations. During clinical examination, there was no evidence of neurovascular deficit for upper extremities and left knee. Radiographs confirmed bilateral anterior glenohumeral dislocation combined with anterior left knee dislocation (Figure 1). Bilateral anterior shoulder dislocations are reported less often. A recent review of 70 patients demonstrated that the causes of anterior injuries were trauma (50%), muscle contractions (37%) due to seizures or electrocution, and atraumatic events (13%). Because of various etiologies, dislocation mechanisms are different. Lever effect is a type of dislocation mechanism that forces abduction and external rotation of the arm. With the greater tuberosity pressing against the acromion, the humeral head is forced anteriorly out of the glenohumeral joint (1, 2). The patient, in this case, had low-energy trauma as well as left knee dislocation. Complete dislocation of the knee causes devastating extremity injuries, particularly in the popliteal artery and peroneal nerve. The incidence of nerve and artery injury due to knee dislocation is 10%–40%. Even worse, when a vascular injury secondary to a traumatic knee dislocation cannot be repaired within 8 h, the amputation rate increases to nearly 85%. Therefore, vascular assessment should include examination of both the dorsalis pedis and posterior tibial pulses, ankle-brachial index measurement, and computerized tomography (CT) angiography or arteriography. The patient had no clinical signs of vascular and nerve injury at the time of admission and observation, so she did not urgently need further radiological study such as CT angiography (3, 4).