An Ellipsis Approach to Contrastive Left-Dislocation

This article proposes a novel analysis of contrastive left-dislocation (CLD), according to which the left-dislocated XP is a remnant of clausal ellipsis. This analysis makes sense of the otherwise paradoxical fact that the dislocated XP shows connectivity into the clause it precedes, while other properties betray its clause-external status. The paradox is resolved by analyzing CLD as a juxtaposition of two parallel clauses, the first of which is reduced by deletion at PF. Akin to recent treatments of sluicing, fragment answers, split questions, and other phenomena, the analysis reduces CLD to an interplay of Ᾱ-movement and ellipsis, thereby removing constructional residue from the theory of Universal Grammar.