Referential accessibility and left dislocation in mediaeval spanish

Abstract

In the generative bibliography, it is common to distinguish between the so-called Hanging Topic Left Dislocations (HTLDs) and the Clitic Left Dislocations (CLLDs), based on various syntactic and pragmatic properties. This study investigates whether referential accessibility, one of the discursive-pragmatic properties of the postulated dislocations, is important for Mediaeval Spanish. It is demonstrated that Mediaeval dislocations differ considerably from their present-day counterparts and that, therefore, the distinction between HTLDs and CLLDs is difficult to uphold for 13^th century Mediaeval Spanish using the current criteria.