To resume or not to resume: Some remarks on ‘resumption’ in left dislocation constructions in Polish, and its relevance for Biblical Hebrew

Abstract

The present paper analyzes the use of resumption in LD constructions in Polish. The evidence indicates that, in various cases, resumption is not obligatory in Polish. In fact, Polish LD constructions omit resumptive elements more often than they employ them. The absence of resumption is a part of a more a general phenomenon in Polish – the gradient nature of LD constructions ranging from more canonical (approximating the crosslinguistic prototype) to less canonical (more distant from the prototype), and their relationship to fronting. This article provides further evidence for the facultative status of resumption in the crosslinguistic LD category, and for the universal, formal and functional, relationship between LD and fronting.

Keywords

• polish
• left dislocation
• resumption
• fronting