LEFT-DISLOCATION AND TOPICALIZATION IN CAPEVERDEAN CREOLE

In this dissertation, left-dislocations and topicalizations were analyzed and compared in Capeverdean Creole. To describe them, the following groups of linguistic features were used. (I) type of determiner which can precede a left-dislocated or a topicalized item; (II) type of information conveyed by the left-dislocated or topicalized item; (III) animateness or inanimateness of the left-dislocated or topicalized item; (IV) relations between a left-dislocated or topicalized referent and the preceding discourse; (V) relations between a left-dislocated or topicalized referent and the following discourse; (VI) position of the coreferential pronoun in a left-dislocated sentence and of the gap in a topicalized construction. It was shown that both left-dislocated and topicalized referents tend to appear in the clauses which immediately precede a left-dislocation of a topicalization but that these constructions differ with regard to the other groups of linguistic constraints. Hence left-dislocations involve mostly animate referents whereas topicalizations involve mostly inanimate referents. The referent of a left-dislocated NP is more likely to occur in the following discourse than the referent of a topicalized NP. Definite determiners occur more often with left-dislocated NPs than with topicalized ones. Gaps are more likely to be sentence-final in topicalized constructions than coreferential pronouns in left-dislocations. Left-dislocations tend to involve more brand-new than inferrable referents whereas the opposite holds for topicalization. In order to appreciate the differences between left-dislocations/topicalizations and sentences with canonical word-order, that is, sentences with the order-subject, predicate, indirect object, direct object--a sample of these sentences were used. Sentences with canonical word-order were described according to the groups of linguistic constraints and shown that differ from both left-dislocations and topicalizations. It was shown that both left-dislocations and topicalizations are more likely to occur in the discourse which is being developed by a speaker than in the interruptions of this discourse. Neither left-dislocations nor topicalizations are sensitive to extra-linguistic constraints. It was shown that the differences between left-dislocations and topicalizations are explainable when functions in discourse are analyzed: left-dislocations are used to foreground a referent whereas topicalizations are used to introduce a contrast or a justification. These are not their sole functions but the relevant ones