Topicalization and Left Dislocation: An Experimental Study

Abstract

This study aims to elucidate the restrained distributions of embedded topicalization and left dislocation (LD) through an online acceptability judgement task. Currently, there are two opposing approaches regarding their confined distributions. The intervention approach by Haegeman (2007, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2012) argues that topicalization gives rise to the intervention effect with operator movement to the left periphery. The truncation approach by Miyagawa (2017), on the other hand, notes that the truncation of a Topic Phrase excludes both topicalization and LD in the complements of Class C and D predicates of Hooper and Thompson (1973). The rationale for the latter approach is that LD, which does not involve movement, would not intervene with operator movement. The results of the acceptability judgement task reveal hitherto unnoticed differences of acceptability among various complements, and we are led to reconsider the exact syntactic projections hosting topicalization and LD. It is argued that both intervention and truncation are operative at the periphery, but their effect on embedded topicalization and LD varies depending on the matrix predicate class.