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Recent Developments in Hispanic Linguistics: Studies in structure, variation, and bilingualism
Edited by Michael Gradoville and Sean McKinnon
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 41] 2024
► pp. 26–45

Chapter 1
When left dislocation meets epithets

| University of Georgia

In Spanish syntax, a clitic left-dislocated constituent may incorporate a coreferential epithet within the sentence, along with a clitic as a resumptive element. In previous research, there exist three approaches to the relationships among the dislocated constituent, the clitic, and the epithet. The first suggests the dislocated constituent is originally generated in its surface position. The second argues it originates in a small clause with the epithet, then moves to the left periphery. The third contends the constituent is part of a distinct clause, truncated by ellipsis. This study examines ditransitive verb structures featuring epithets in Peninsular Spanish, advocating that the left dislocation with an internal epithet results from syntactic movement, contributing new insights to this ongoing debate.

Keywords: clitic left dislocation, movement, predication, epithet
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous analyses
    • 2.1CLLD+epithet in Suñer (2006)
    • 2.2CLLD+epithet in López (2009)
    • 2.3CLLD+epithet in Estigarribia (2017, 2020)
  • 3.A closer look at CLLD+epithet
    • 3.1Problems of the bi-clausal account
      • 3.1.1Number mismatch exists in small clauses
      • 3.1.2Impossible ellipsis
    • 3.2CLLD+epithet is a case of movement out of a small clause
      • 3.2.1Syntactic assumptions of small clauses
      • 3.2.2Justification for the movement out of a small clause approach
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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