Dislocations
Dislocations are different from Absolute Themes in that the ‘dislocated’ element is a constituent of the clause, frequently subject (as in That letter, was it from Bruce?), and is repeated by a co-referential pronoun (it in this case) in its normal position within the clause. The connection is therefore encoded grammatically, not established inferentially. 1 and 2 illustrate what are usually known as left-dislocations, while 3 is a right-dislocation:
1 That letter, was it from Bruce? (compare: Was that letter from Bruce?)
2 And those flood waters that affected the (declarative structure instead of
Czech Republic, those are the ones interrogative)
that are sweeping towards Germany.
3 Is it new, that top – No, I bought it (Non-dislocated: Is that top new?)
last year.
One explanation sometimes given of left-dislocation is that the speaker presents the main person or thing s/he wishes to talk about (that letter, those flood waters that affected the Czech Republic) without having worked out the structure to be used. A more positive view, cognitively and communicatively, is that by ‘detaching’ the salient referent and putting it first, the speaker side-steps grammatical complexity, presenting a ‘topic– comment’ structure that is more easily grasped than the normal one. Interrogatives and relatives are complex structures in English, and it is in these cases that we can find left-dislocation.
Right-dislocations are more problematic to analyze as Themes, as they are not initial, but instead are placed after the clause as a full NG, (that top) whose referent had been just introduced as a pronoun (it). The traditional view is that the final nominal is an afterthought, which again, implies a construction failure on the part of the speaker. A cognitive functional explanation, however, suggests a motivation for this structure, namely, that of making explicit a referent (that top) which was accessible to the speaker in the context, but perhaps not so obvious to the hearer, or not in the speaker’s mind at the moment.
Affectivity may provide a different kind of motivation, as in the next two examples. In the first the referent was an escaped pig, called McQueen; the second a relative of the speaker. In the third, a deictic pronoun this refers to the immediate context:
And he not only flew over the fence, he could swim, that pig. (author’s data)
He’s a cool dude, Sam (AmE). (author’s data)
It’s a nice place, this.
