On some constraints on right dislocation in Japanese

Abstract This paper takes up some constraints on right dislocation in Japanese (JRD) and shows that some of them are sensitive to the presence of an overt correlate for the right-dislocated element while others are not. Adopting a commonly proposed biclausal analysis of JRD, we propose that there are two ways to derive JRD patterns. One involves movement of the right-dislocated element and the other involves no such movement. We show how these two derivations account for island sensitivity and the interpretation of nominal modifiers and adverbs in JRD. The main function of overt correlates in all these cases is to signal where dislocated elements should be interpreted in various syntactic structures. For constraints that are not affected by the presence of overt correlates, we focus on the ones related to phonological phrasing and domains to which multiple RD applies. We show that a binarity constraint can be observed, where it is required for right-dislocated elements to be grouped into two phonological phrases. We then discuss two additional constraints on multiple RD: one on the composition of elements in a phonological phrase, and the other on the domain where multiple RD takes place.