LINGUIST List 17.1721: Syntax: Sturgeon: 'The Syntax and Pragmatics of Contrastive T...'

LINGUIST List 17.1721

Tue Jun 06 2006

Diss: Syntax: Sturgeon: 'The Syntax and Pragmatics of Contrastive T...'

Editor for this issue: Meredith Valant <meredithlinguistlist.org>

Directory 1. Anne Sturgeon, The Syntax and Pragmatics of Contrastive Topic in Czech

Message 1: The Syntax and Pragmatics of Contrastive Topic in Czech
Date: 06-Jun-2006
From: Anne Sturgeon <annemarucsc.edu>
Subject: The Syntax and Pragmatics of Contrastive Topic in Czech

Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2006

Author: Anne Marie Sturgeon

Dissertation Title: The Syntax and Pragmatics of Contrastive Topic in Czech

Dissertation URL: http://people.ucsc.edu/~annemar/dissertation.html

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax
Subject Language(s): Czech (ces)
Dissertation Director:
Judith Aissen
Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation concerns the syntax, pragmatics and prosody of two typesof left dislocation constructions in Czech: Contrastive Left Dislocation(CLD) and Hanging Topic Left Dislocation (HTLD). In both constructions, aleft dislocated constituent appears separated from the main clause by anintonational break. This constituent binds both a resumptive pronoun atthe left edge of the main clause and a clause-internal gap. Though theseconstructions share certain characteristics, they also display severaldifferences. In CLD, there is evidence of a syntactic connection betweenthe left dislocate and the clause-internal gap. This evidence issystematically absent in HTLD.

Chapter 2 develops an account of Czech clause structure to support theanalysis of left dislocation proposed here. A key assumption is that [Spec,IP] is an A-bar position in Czech, and hosts topics, contrastive topics,and foci. To account for the syntactic differences between CLD and HTLD, Ipropose that CLD'ed elements move from a clause-internal position through[Spec, IP] to a position at the left periphery. Connectivity effects ofseveral types support this analysis. Since connectivity effects are absentin HTLD, I propose that hanging topics are base-generated in aleft-peripheral position and are related to the resumptive throughcoreference.

CLD and HTLD also differ pragmatically: HTLD promotes the discoursereferent of the left dislocate to topic status, while CLD marks the leftdislocate as a contrastive topic. These conclusions are based on theanalysis of approximately 100 attested examples identified from the CzechNational Corpus and through Google searches.

A long-standing question in the literature on left dislocation is theappearance of the resumptive. In HTLD, the resumptive is independent ofthe hanging topic. It moves from its base position and is related to thehanging topic through coreference. In CLD, the resumptive is notindependent, but appears in a position through which the contrastive topicmoves. To account for the resumptive in CLD, I adopt the Copy and Deletetheory of movement (Chomsky 1995) and propose that the intermediatemovement copy spells out in order to satisfy prosodic conditions associatedwith contrastive topics in Czech.