Chomsky (1977) argued for a dedicated topic position above the CP. I will develop this idea in several directions. First, I will show that this topic position hosts Aboutness topics uniformly across three languages: English, Japanese, and Spanish. Second, while this topic position occurs freely in matrix clauses, in complement clauses it can only occur with certain predicates identified by Hooper and Thompson (1973). Using Villalta’s (2008) analysis of the subjunctive mood in Spanish, I will argue that the limitations on the occurrence of the topic position in complement clauses are due to the semantic properties of these clauses and the predicates that select them. Finally, we will see that the other two kinds of topics, Contrastive and Familiar topics, vary in their distribution across languages. I will show that this variation is predicted by the typology under Strong Uniformity (Miyagawa 2010, 2017).*

The paper examines the C particle kong in Taiwanese. Following Simpson and Wu (2002), the paper argues that tone sandhi that kong participates in provides an argument for multiple spell-out. It is also shown that the kong construction can be used to tease apart different approaches to multiple spell-out and successive-cyclic movement. In particular, tone sandhi with kong provides evidence for the approach argued for in Bošković (2016a), which dispenses with the Phase-Impenetrability Condition and where spell-out targets phases and successive-cyclic movement targets phrases above phases. The paper also provides a uniform account of the derivational PF effect regarding tone sandhi in Taiwanese and the derivational PF effect regarding primary stress assignment in English noted in Bresnan (1972).*

In this paper, I argue that a subtype of right dislocation (RD) in Cantonese introduces defocus in a sentence. It involves a process of defocalization, the core semantic function of which is to reduce possible focus sets within a sentence. RD shows syntactic properties such as locality condition and long distance dependency. It is argued that the RD at issue is instance of A’-movement to the left periphery. I propose that RD can be derived through a combination of two independent operations. First, the defocalized element undergoes a leftward movement (defocalization) to the specifier of DefocusP (a projection lower than sentence particles). The remnant TP then moves to the specifier of another projection above sentence particles, which is independently motivated. The current proposal complements the Dislocation Focus Construction (Cheung 2005) and hence contributes to a complete theory in deriving right dislocation in Cantonese. Finally, I argue that the right dislocation of verb is an instance of syntactic (long-distance) head-spec movement.*

Indo-Europeanists have so far widely accepted the idea that both the preterite tense formations of strong verbs and the present tense forms of preterite-present verbs developed out of the PIE perfect. However, class IV and V strong verbs show a long vowel in their root (e.g. *bǣr- or *bē1r- ‘carried’, *lǣs/z- or *lē1s/z- ‘collected’), whereas correponding preterite-presents reflect the original reduced grade vocalism in their root (e.g. *mun- ‘think’, *nuǥ- ‘are sufficient’). The traditional view that the PIE perfect underlies all these formations has yet to provide any satisfactory historical explanation for the conspicuous morphological difference observable between these two formation types. Although Schumacher (2005) offers a new proposal about the relevant problem in accordance with the time-honoured view, this paper points out that his ‘bigētun-Regel’ cannot adequately account for the morphological divergence at issue. Instead of the conventional interpretation of both the strong preterite and the preterite-present present tense forms having evolved from the PIE perfect alone, the current paper attempts to present a different formula, which may be called a ‘morphological conflation’ theory. This approach proposes that the preterite tense formations of strong verbs result from a mixing of the perfect and the imperfect, whilst the present tense forms of preterite-present verbs stem from an amalgamation of the perfect and the athematic present middle. It is contended that the difference in morphological conflation style has yielded the remarkable morphological differences between the two kinds of verbs under discussion.

This study analyzed aspects of final-ending usages in Yenpyen-regional dialect conversations from the perspective of sociolinguistics, such as degree of intimacy in their relationships and the attributes of the speaker. The analysis elucidated the below four points: (1) In the Yenpyen regional dialect there are, generally, four speech levels of the gearer-oriented honorific System. Hayla-chey and Hay-chey are often used. Hao-chey final endings have not been not confirmed in speech for their 10s, with their forties at the lower end. (2) In final endings in the Yenpyen regional dialect, there is frequently a fusion and omission not seen in other dialects, in such forms as -s@p- (modesty), -te- (witnessing), and -ni (Hayla-chey). These final endings appear differently according to the age of the speaker. (3) In the synchronous Yenpyen dialect, aside from the substratum Hamkyengto dialect, in conversations in their sixties and above, final endings originating from the Lyukcin dialect are used. (4) In the Yenpyen dialect, even if forms such as -ta, -ci, -a/e-, and -nya are the same, there are final endings with registers different from many other dialect forms.