Editing Dislocation (syntax)

{{Short description|Type of sentence structure}}
{{distinguish|apposition}}
{{more footnotes|date=May 2020}}
In [[syntax]], '''dislocation''' is a sentence structure in which a [[Constituent (linguistics)|constituent]], which could otherwise be either an argument or an [[Adjunct (grammar)|adjunct]] of the clause, occurs outside the clause boundaries either to its left or to its right. In this English example ''They went to the store, '''Mary and Peter''''' the dislocation occurs to the right.

The dislocated element is often separated by a pause (comma in writing) from the rest of the sentence. Its place within the clause is often occupied by a pronoun (e.g. ''they'').

There are two types of dislocation: '''right dislocation''', in which the constituent is postponed (as in the above example), or a '''left dislocation''', in which it is advanced. Right dislocation often occurs with a clarifying afterthought: ''They went to the store'' is a coherent sentence, but ''Mary and Peter'' is added afterward to clarify exactly who ''they'' are. By contrast, left dislocation is like [[clefting]]: it can be used to emphasize or define a [[topic (linguistics)|topic]]. For example, the sentence ''This little girl, the dog bit her'' has the same meaning as ''The dog bit this little girl'' but it emphasizes that the little girl (and not the dog) is the topic of interest. One might expect the next sentence to be ''The little girl needs to see a doctor'', rather than ''The dog needs to be leashed''. This type of dislocation is a feature of [[topic-prominent language]]s.

==In French==
Informal spoken [[French language|French]] uses right dislocation very naturally and extensively, to detach [[Semantics|semantic]] information from the [[Grammar|grammatical]] information. Whereas a French news article would likely translate ''The dog bit the little girl'' as ''Le chien a mordu la petite fille'' (lit. "The dog has bitten the little girl"), in everyday speech one might hear ''Il l'a mordue, le chien, la petite fille'' (lit. "It has bitten her, the dog, the little girl"), in which both ''le chien'' ("the dog") and ''la petite fille'' ("the little girl") have been dislocated to the right and replaced by pronouns within the clause. This phenomenon was first studied in French by linguist [[Joseph Vendryes]].

It has been proposed that informal spoken French can be analyzed as having [[polypersonal agreement]]; that is, the various (mostly clitic) pronouns surrounding the verb can be viewed as [[inflection]]s on the verb that [[agreement (linguistics)|agree]] in [[grammatical person|person]], [[grammatical number|number]], and sometimes [[grammatical gender|gender]] with its various [[verb argument|arguments]].

Author [[Raymond Queneau]], whose favourite example of dislocation in French was ''L'a-t-il jamais attrapé, le gendarme, son voleur ?'' ("Has he ever caught him, the policeman, his thief?"), has been inspired to write many articles such as ''Connaissez-vous le Chinook ?'' ("Do you know [[Chinookan languages|Chinookan]]?"). According to Queneau, right dislocation in Chinookan is commonplace.

==In Cantonese==
Colloquial [[Cantonese]] often uses right dislocation when afterthoughts occur after completing a sentence.<ref name=MatthewsYip>{{cite book | last = Matthews | first = Stephen |author2=Yip, Virginia | title = Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar | url = https://archive.org/details/cantonesecompreh00matt | url-access = limited | publisher = Routledge | year = 1994 | location = London | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cantonesecompreh00matt/page/n46 71]–4, 229, 239 | isbn = 0-415-08945-X}}</ref>  Because it is a [[pro-drop language]], no pronoun is used when a [[subject (grammar)|subject]] is dislocated, leading to an appearance of changed word order.  For instance, the normal word order is [[subject–verb–object]] (SVO):
{{fs interlinear|lang=yue|indent=3|glossing=link
|王生 返 咗 屋企。
|{wong4 saang1} faan1 zo2 {uk1 kei2}
|{Mr. Wong} return PFV home
|''Mr. Wong returned home.''}}

Dislocation can result in the appearance of [[verb–object–subject]] (VOS) word order because no pronoun is used:
{{fs interlinear|lang=yue|indent=3|abbreviations=SFP:sentence-final particle|glossing=link
|返 咗 屋企 喇, 王生。
|faan1 zo2 {uk1 kei2} laa3, {wong4 saang1} 
|return PFV home SFP, {Mr. Wong}
|''[He] returned home, Mr. Wong.''}}

At a [[deep structure|deep level]] though, the sentence is still SVO but only appears to be VOS due to dislocation and pronoun dropping. Often a [[sentence-final particle]] (SFP) is required after the main clause, otherwise the sentence would sound strange or unacceptable. Right dislocation in Cantonese can occur with [[auxiliary verb]]s, [[adverb]]s, and sometimes [[subordinate clause]]s in addition to subjects.<ref name="MatthewsYip"/>

Being a [[Chinese language]], Cantonese is also a topic-prominent language and thus features left dislocation.<ref name="MatthewsYip"/>  For instance:
{{fs interlinear|lang=yue|indent=3|glossing=link
|王生 已經 買 咗 奶。
|{wong4 saang1} {ji5 ging1} maai5 zo2 naai5 
|{Mr. Wong} already buy PFV milk
|''Mr. Wong already bought the milk.''}}

Topicalization can make this sentence appear to be [[object–subject–verb]] (OSV):
{{fs interlinear|lang=yue|indent=3|glossing=link
|奶 王生 已經 買 咗。
|naai5 {wong4 saang1} {ji5 ging1} maai5 zo2
|milk {Mr. Wong} already buy PFV
|''[As for] the milk, Mr. Wong already bought [it].''}}

Both left and right dislocation can even be featured in the same sentence:
{{fs interlinear|lang=yue|indent=3|abbreviations=SFP:sentence-final particle|glossing=link
|奶 已經 買 咗 喇, 王生。
|naai5 {ji5 ging1} maai5 zo2 laa3, {wong4 saang1}
|milk already buy PFV SFP, {Mr. Wong} 
|''[As for] the milk, [he] already bought [it], Mr. Wong''}}

==References==
<references/>

==Sources==
*Lambrecht, Knud. 2001. "Dislocation". In [[Martin Haspelmath]], Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible, eds., ''Language Typology and Language Universals: An International Handbook''. (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, 20). Vol. 2, 1050–1078. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
*[[Ellen Prince|Prince, Ellen]], 1997. On the functions of left-dislocation in English discourse. In: Kamio, A. (Ed.), ''Directions in Functional Linguistics''. John Benjamins, Philadelphia, pp.&nbsp;117–144.
*[[Ellen Prince|Prince, Ellen]], 1998. On the limits of syntax, with reference to topicalization and left-dislocation. In: Cullicover, P., McNally, L. (Eds.), ''Syntax and Semantics'', vol. 29. Academic Press, New York, pp.&nbsp;281–302

[[Category:Syntactic relationships]]
[[Category:Generative syntax]]
[[Category:Syntax]]