The interaction between topicalization and structural constraints : evidence from Yucatec Maya
- This article deals with the syntactic and pragmatic properties of left dislocated constituents in Yucatec Maya. It has been argued that these constituents are topics, which implies that a particular structural configuration, namely left dislocation displays a 1:1 correspondence to a particular discourse function. We present evidence that the discourse properties of left dislocation are not uniform: only a subset of the left dislocated constituents qualify as topics in the strict sense, while other instances of left dislocation are better explained if we assume a structural constraint that bans the postverbal occurrence of subject constituents in a particular syntactic configuration. Our empirical findings show that though the occurrence of word order possibilities in discourse is not random, it is not necessarily determined by a unique licensing condition.
Author details: | Stavros Skopeteas, Elisabeth Verhoeven |
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URL: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/tlir |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1515/tlir.2009.009 |
ISSN: | 0167-6318 |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2009 |
Publication year: | 2009 |
Release date: | 2017/03/25 |
Source: | Linguistic review. - ISSN 0167-6318. - 26 (2009), 2-3, S. 239 - 259 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik |
Peer review: | Referiert |