Information Structure and the English Left Periphery

This paper uses two English structures with noncanonical word-order (Topicalization and Left-dislocation) as case studies into information-structure (IS). It is argued that topicalized elements have a contrastive IS-interpretation, while left-dislocated ones are like regular topics. Based on these observations, a new framework for IS is proposed, based on the features NEW and D(iscourse)-LINKED. As "contrast" is judged to be essential for the proper characterization of IS, it is integrated into the proposed architecture, as an additional d-linking feature. This framework is argued to be an improved amalgamation of previous IS-architectures.