Beyond the topic-marking discourse function of Left Dislocations. Evidence from Italian, Spanish, and English spoken corpora

Left Dislocations (LDs) are generally regarded as carrying a Topic/Comment information partition and performing an overall topic-marking discourse function. However, when confronted with actual texts, the description of both information structure and discourse functions fails to account for all the occurrences. In this paper, we present a cross-linguistic model for the description of LDs discourse functions, checked against Italian, English, and Spanish spoken corpora. Our results support Prince’s view that discourse functions cannot be simply derived by form, demonstrating that prosody, syntax, information structure and discourse functions do not always align. Crucially, we show that LDs are not only topic-marking and that the function performed are shaped by context. Assuming a broader, non-utterance centered perspective, we define LDs as prominence cues used by speakers to signal a disruption in the ongoing discourse, the nature of this discourse prominence being dynamic and evolving as the text unfolds.