Right dislocation as multidominance, and beyond

Abstract

This study argues for a multidominant approach to right dislocation (RD), the first of its kind, with data from Cantonese and Mandarin as well as Japanese and Korean. The crucial evidence comes from focus/wh-association of ‘only’/‘(wh-)the-hell’ expressions in RD, which requires a “leftward” c-command configuration. This challenges current monoclausal movement and biclausal sluicing approaches, but naturally falls out from a multidominant structure formed by Parallel Merge. The findings suggest that focus/wh-association serves as reliable and moreover novel diagnostics for multidominance, which can be extended beyond RD to Right Node Raising and possibly other constructions.