SIL talk by Lieke Hendriks (Georg-August University Göttingen)

Split Topicalization in Southern Dutch: accounting for Microvariation

Split Topicalization (ST) as in (1) refers to the phenomenon in which one constituent seems to have been broken up into two parts: a topicalized part and a remnant. Generally, the topicalized part must be indefinite and must evoke a ‘kind’ interpretation, while the remnant is freer in its make-up. Roughly, the remnant in ST can be a quantifier (as in (1)), an adjective, or a noun.

Topicalized part                                                          Remnant

(1) Boeken van        Chomsky             heb        ik           twee        gelezen.

Books   of           Chomsky            have      I              two       read

‘As for books by Chomsky, I have read two.’

Literature on West-Germanic languages has given much attention to the paradoxical nature of ST, but much less attention has been given to the variation that one can find amongst West-Germanic varieties. For example, there is interspeaker variation with regards to ST in Dutch as only Southern Dutch dialects spoken in the Netherlands allow for the construction. That is not all, though. In addition to interspeaker variation in Dutch dialects, intraspeaker variation can be observed as well. That is, speakers vary regarding what the remnant can consist of. An implicational hierarchy can be detected: quantifiers > adjectives > nouns. This talk will explore the (intraspeaker) variation found in ST, and will propose an analysis that can capture the new observations.