Left Dislocation and Hanging Topics

When an Icelander wants to announce what a sentence is about before saying anything else about it, one common move is to name the topic, pause, and then build a complete clause that refers back to it with a pronoun: Jón, *hann er góður strákur "Jón, he's a good lad." The topic *Jón sits outside the clause; the clause itself is hann er góður strákur, grammatically complete on its own, with the pronoun hann doing the resuming. This is left dislocation, and it is the chief rival to topicalization as a way of fronting a topic. The two look superficially alike — both put something at the front — but they differ on one decisive point: topicalization leaves a gap where the fronted phrase came from, while left dislocation leaves a resumptive pronoun. That single difference (gap vs resumptive) drives everything else: how case works, how V2 is satisfied, and which register and discourse function each belongs to. This page is about the resumptive strategy and how to tell it apart from the gap strategy. (For topicalization and clefts themselves, see syntax/topicalization-and-clefts; for topic/focus more broadly, syntax/information-structure.)

The shape: a topic outside, a resumptive pronoun inside

In left dislocation the topic noun phrase is detached at the very front of the utterance, set off (in writing, often by a comma), and the following clause is a full, self-standing V2 clause that contains a resumptive pronoun picking the topic up. Remove the dislocated phrase and the clause still stands on its own.

The diagnostic, in one image: there are two slots for the topic — an external one (the dislocated phrase, outside the clause) and an internal one (the resumptive pronoun, inside the clause). The same referent appears twice. Compare topicalization, where the topic appears once, fronted into the clause itself, leaving a gap behind it. We will sharpen that contrast in a moment.

The decisive contrast: resumptive (dislocation) vs gap (topicalization)

Put a minimal pair side by side. Both front þessa bók "this book"; both are grammatical; both make the book the topic. But they are built differently and they feel different.

Read the two aloud and the structural difference is audible. In the dislocation, þessa bók is a separate intonational chunk (you can hear the comma), and then a whole clause follows beginning with hana. In the topicalization, þessa bók hef ég lesið is a single clause with no break — the object has simply moved to the front and left a gap. So: is there a resumptive pronoun in the prefield, or is the prefield filled by the fronted phrase itself? That question, and nothing else, distinguishes the two constructions. Competitor resources lump all "fronting" together and never draw this line; the resumptive is the line.

V2 is satisfied by the resumptive, not by the dislocated phrase

Here is the subtle structural payoff, and the reason the comma matters. Icelandic is a strict V2 language: the finite verb must be the second constituent of its clause, and exactly one element fills the prefield before it. In left dislocation, the detached topic is outside the clause — it does not count as the clause's first constituent. So what fills the prefield and satisfies V2? The resumptive pronoun. That is why the order is Þessa bók, *hana hef ég lesið — the resumptive *hana is the prefield element, the verb hef comes second after it, and the dislocated þessa bók hangs outside the V2 count entirely.

Contrast topicalization once more: there, the fronted phrase itself is the prefield element and satisfies V2 (Þessa bók hef ég lesið — þessa bók fills the prefield, hef is second). So the two constructions satisfy V2 differently: in topicalization the fronted phrase is the V2 first constituent; in dislocation an extra-clausal phrase sits before the V2 clause, and a resumptive pronoun does the V2 work. This is why a dislocation can look like it has three things before the verb (Þessa bók, hana hef…) without violating V2 — the first one is outside the count.

Case: the resumptive matches the role; the topic can match or default

Because the resumptive pronoun is the element actually doing a job inside the clause, it carries the case that its grammatical role demands — accusative if it is an object of an accusative verb, dative if of a dative verb, nominative if it is the subject. The dislocated topic also normally appears in that same case (case-matching), which is the careful, fully grammatical pattern: Þennan mann, honum treysti ég — but speakers sometimes leave the dislocated topic in a default nominative (a hanging topic proper), especially when it is heavy or when the resumptive's case is oblique. The reliable rule is about the resumptive: get its case right from the verb, every time.

The third example is the hanging topic in its purest form: Jón is announced in the bare nominative, detached, and then a fully ordinary clause follows (ég hef aldrei treyst honum) in which the resumptive honum — not the topic — bears the dative that treysta assigns. Here the resumptive isn't even in the prefield; the subject ég is. This is the loosest, most colloquial end of the construction: a topic flung out front, then a self-contained sentence about it.

Register and discourse function: why you'd choose one over the other

Left dislocation is overwhelmingly a creature of spoken, informal Icelandic (and informal writing that imitates speech — dialogue, chat, casual narration). It is a planning and staging device: you put the topic out front to flag "here's what I'm going to talk about," buying a beat before committing to the clause, and the resumptive then slots it into the grammar. That is exactly why it sounds conversational — it mirrors how speech is actually assembled in real time. Topicalization, by contrast, is tighter and more neutral in register, equally at home in writing, and tends to mark contrast rather than mere topic-announcement.

So the choice is functional. Reach for left dislocation when you are introducing or re-activating a topic in conversational register and want the relaxed, staged feel — Jón, hann…. Reach for topicalization when you want a tight, contrastive fronting, in any register, with no resumptive — Jón þekki ég, en bróður hans ekki "Jón I know, but not his brother." The resumptive pronoun is both the structural and the stylistic signature of the dislocation.

Common Mistakes

The core confusion: starting a dislocation (detached topic) but then forgetting the resumptive and producing a V2-broken hybrid. Either supply the resumptive (dislocation) or drop the comma and front into the clause (topicalization).

This is the mirror error: stacking the topic and a resumptive inside one clause, breaking V2. The dislocated phrase must be outside the clause; only then is the resumptive the legitimate prefield filler.

Don't put a resumptive inside a gap-leaving topicalization; the two strategies are mutually exclusive within one clause.

The resumptive carries the case its verb assigns — dative honum for treysta — regardless of where it sits. Getting the resumptive's case wrong is the commonest fine-grained error.

Left dislocation belongs to speech and informal writing; dropping it into formal prose sounds conversational where it shouldn't.

Key Takeaways

• Left dislocation detaches a topic at the front and resumes it with a resumptive pronoun inside a complete clause: Jón, *hann er góður strákur; Þessa bók, hana hef ég lesið*.
• The resumptive pronoun is the decisive contrast with topicalization, which fronts a phrase into the clause and leaves a gap (Þessa bók hef ég lesið — no resumptive). Resumptive = dislocation; gap = topicalization.
• V2 is satisfied by the resumptive, not by the dislocated phrase: the detached topic is extra-clausal, the resumptive fills the prefield, and the verb is second after it (Þennan mann, *honum treysti ég). You cannot have both the fronted phrase and a resumptive *inside one clause.
• The resumptive always carries the case its verb assigns (acc. hana, dat. honum). The detached topic either matches that case (case-matching dislocation) or stands in default nominative (a hanging topic).
• Left dislocation is (informal/spoken) — a topic-staging device of conversation; topicalization is tighter, more neutral in register, and tends to mark contrast. Choose by function and register.