Topicalization and left-dislocation: A functional opposition revisited

In this case study, we use conversational data from the Switchboard corpus to investigate the functional opposition between two pragmatically specialized constructions of English: Topicalization and Left-Dislocation. Specifically, we use distribution trends in the Switchboard corpus to revise several conclusions reached by Prince (1981a, b, 1997) concerning the function of Left-Dislocation. While Prince holds that Left-Dislocation has no unitary functionn, we argue that the distinct uses of the construction identified by Prince can be subsumed under the general function of topic promotion. While Prince holds that Topicalization is a more pragmatically specialized construction than Left-Dislocation, we argue that Left-Dislocation has equally restrictive and distinct use conditions, which reflect its status as a topic-promoting device. We conclude that computational corpus methods provide an important check on the validity of claims concerning pragmatic markedness.