Bi-clausal sluicing approach to dislocation copying in Cantonese

Abstract

This article discusses a variant of Cantonese dislocation structures known as “dislocation copying” wherein a (non-)constituent string of the host clause gets copied at the right edge. Unlike some previous proposals, it is argued that the relationship between the host clause and the dislocated string cannot be explained purely on pragmatic grounds. Rather, a syntactic account is necessary to explain the dislocated string’s sensitivity to structure. Adopting bi-clausal analysis, we propose that dislocation copying involves the fronting of a remnant containing an elided XP to the left periphery of the second clause, followed by the sluicing of the remainder of the clause. It is argued that the dislocation string gives rise to contrastive/emphasis interpretation. We have also compared similar dislocations in Dutch, German, Japanese and Korean with Cantonese. The findings suggest that sluicing in a bi-clausal structure is common to all of these dislocation structures. The typological variation arises mainly from the different types of phrasal fronting that feed sluicing.