Left Dislocation in Arabic: The complexity of form and meaning

  • Alexander Andrason Department of African Languages, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5842/50-0-719
Keywords: Arabic, left dislocation, fronting

Abstract

This paper studies the complexity of L(eft) D(islocation). It demonstrates that the function that is crosslinguistically associated with LD is conveyed in Arabic by a set of LD constructions. In the analyzed corpus, these constructions belong to two main types: Clitic LD and Subject LD. Some LD constructions formally and/or functionally overlap with other grammatical categories, especially with fronting. Overall, the absence of a feature proposed for the LD prototype does not imply that a new category, different from LD, must be postulated. The overlap between LD and fronting is explained as a typical effect of language complexity, which can be dealt with if the system of forms and meanings is understood as fuzzy.

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Published
2016-12-29
How to Cite
Andrason, A. (2016). Left Dislocation in Arabic: The complexity of form and meaning. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 50, 111-138. https://doi.org/10.5842/50-0-719
Issue
Vol. 50 (2016): Special issue on Left Dislocation
Section
Articles
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