Two types of left-dislocation in Old English

Abstract

This paper examines two types of left-dislocated structures in Old English: contrastive left-dislocation (CLD) and hanging topic left-dislocation (HTLD). As reported in the literature, the constructions show differences with respect to three properties: the type of the resumptive pronoun (demonstrative or personal pronoun), case (the same or different case of the resumptive and dislocated phrase) and position (low or high position of the resumptive pronoun). It is argued that only the first property – the type of the resumptive pronoun – clearly differentiates the two types in Old English, whereas the other two characteristics are problematic. Some additional support for the CLD/HTLD division is provided by discourse analysis.