Left Dislocations and their Contribution to Information Structure Steven Runge Logos Bible Software

Traditional Explanations NT Terminology –cleft constructions –hanging nominatives –pendent nominatives –casus pendens –independent nominatives

Traditional Explanations NT Terminology –cleft constructions –hanging nominatives –pendent nominatives –casus pendens –independent nominatives Functions associated with left-dislocation –Wallace: either emotion or emphasis –Young: emphasis –Porter: highlighting or topic shifting

Linguistic Explanation Chafe’s cross-linguistic claim of “one new concept at a time”. Presentational clause There is a guy from the office. He asked me… Topic/Comment clause I know a guy from the office. He asked me…

Linguistic Explanation Streamlined introductions: topic announcing or shifting Left-dislocation “This guy from the office, he asked...” Rhetorical question “Remember the guy from the office? He asked...”

Linguistic Explanation Left-dislocations reserved for: –Topic announcing –Topic promotion Pronominal trace expected in the entity’s default position in the clause

Unmarked Resumption - Matthew 18:6

Unmarked Resumption - Mark 11:23

Unmarked Resumption - Mark 11:23 Mt 21:21-22: Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (ESV).

Simon Dik’s Pre-verbal Slots VO languages have two pre-verbal slots Position 1: Established or accessible information –Traditionally distinguished as “contrastive topic” –Establishes an explicit frame of reference –Represents choice to place info in marked position

Simon Dik’s Pre-verbal Slots VO languages have two pre-verbal slots Position 1: Established or accessible information –Traditionally referred to as “contrastive topic” –Establishes an explicit frame of reference –Represents choice to place info in marked position Position 2: Newly asserted information (focal) –Traditionally referred to as “emphasis” –Most salient information made more prominent, emphasized –Represents choice to place most salient info in a marked position

Default versus Marked Usage Minority of NT dislocations place pronoun in the expected position Statistics versus cross-linguistic patterning

Default versus Marked Usage Minority of NT dislocations place pronoun in the expected position Statistics versus cross-linguistic patterning How is the high frequency of marked usage explained? –Cognitive aid in processing of complex dislocations

Default versus Marked Usage Minority of NT dislocations place pronoun in the expected position Statistics versus cross-linguistic patterning How is the high frequency of marked usage explained? –Cognitive aid in processing of complex dislocations –Rhetorical function of topic promotion

Frame of Reference - James 1:25

Frame of Reference - Romans 8:30

Spatial Frame of Reference - Matthew 6:21

Spatial Frame of Reference - Matthew 6:21 Luke 12:34

Temporal Frame of Reference - Matthew 21:1

Matthew 21:1 Mark 11:1

Comparative Frame of Ref. – Matthew 7:12

Comparative Frame of Ref. – Matthew 7:12 Luke 6:31

Emphasis - Matthew 26:23

Matthew 26:23 Mark 14:20 Luke 22:21

Emphasis - Luke 5:35

Luke 5:35 Matthew 9:15

Conclusions Traditional explanations clarified –Topic shifting, highlighting, and emphasis

Conclusions Traditional explanations clarified –Topic shifting, highlighting, and emphasis Topic-shifting based upon introduction of entities Highlighting based upon semantic requirements Emphasis based upon information structure Non-topical entities Described factors the achieved the different effects

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