The Syntax of Arabic: Clitic-left dislocation and focus constructions

Introduction It has become clear by now that the relationship between referentiality and resumption is more complex than has been observed in the literature. It is not the case, for instance, that the antecedent of a resumptive element must be referential. This was an important conclusion arrived at in the investigation of restrictive relatives in Arabic (see chapter 7). In this chapter, which examines two different A′-constructions – clitic-left dislocation and focus fronting – we will see a confirmation for that conclusion in the context of clitic-left dislocation. By comparing and contrasting the properties of clitic-left dislocation and focus fronting, we also begin the investigation of the syntax of the left periphery in Arabic. The chapter starts with an investigation of clitic-left dislocation. We focus on the distribution of clitic-left dislocated elements with respect to other elements of the left periphery, notably wh-elements. We then investigate the relationship between clitic-left dislocated elements and the resumptive pronominal they are related to within the sentence. The second part of the chapter deals with focus fronting. Here we also examine the distribution of the focus fronted elements with respect to other elements in the left periphery, notably wh-elements and clitic-left dislocated elements. We then turn to the relationship between focus fronted elements and the gap to which they are related inside the sentence.