Topicalizations, left dislocations and the left-periphery

Abstract

My intention in this paper is to provide as complete an overview as possible of the different types of topic phrases in Latin. After setting out the characteristics and properties of what I call Dislocations (Hanging Topics and ClLD) and Topicalizations, I go on to give a description of each morphological or syntactic device employed in Latin: prepositional DP, case marking, fronting clauses. I then propose a hypothesis concerning the cartography of the left periphery in Latin. In addition, I introduce a brief description of an original way of topicalizing the subjects of embedded clauses, namely proleptic accusative construction. The main conclusion is that the cartography of Latin left periphery is not very different from that to be found in languages with fixed word order.

Keywords

• left periphery
• topic
• topicalization
• left dislocation
• relative clause
• proleptic accusative