La dislocation à gauche comme manifestation de la variation stylistique en maltais

Abstract

This article studies left-dislocation in Maltese from the perspective of stylistic variation. The analysis is based on an oral corpus, containing contributions by two speakers, a public-speech professional (Deputy Prime Minister of Malta) and a manager in a large company. The corpus reveals that three types of dislocated segments are identifiable in Maltese, namely lexically full segments, personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns. These segments are analysed from the point of view of the distinction between spoken and written discourse and according to whether they appear in formal, semi-formal and informal situations. The degree of formality characterising the communicative situation appears to produce variation in the rates of use of the three types of detached segments, in their pragmatic functions, as well as in their degree of syntactic complexity.

Keywords

• stylistic variation
• left-dislocation
• corpus
• degree of formality
• types of dislocation
• syntactic complexity