left periphery

English

The structure of the left periphery proposed by Luigi Rizzi.

left periphery (plural left peripheries)

(grammar) The part of a syntactic tree above the inflectional phrase(s) (expressing tense, aspect, and/or mood), where topic, focus, illocutionary force, etc. are expressed.
- 1997, Luigi Rizzi, “The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery”, in Liliane Haegeman, editor, Elements of Grammar: Handbook in Generative Syntax, Dordrecht: Springer, →ISBN, page 281:
  Four kinds of elements typically occurring in the left periphery will be taken into account: interrogative and relative pronouns, topics and focalized elements.
- 2017, Elizabeth Cowper; Vincent DeCaen, “Biblical Hebrew: A formal perspective on the left periphery”, in Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, volume 38, page 14:
  The polar-question particle sheds useful light on the syntax of the BH [Biblical Hebrew] left periphery. [...] With an overt Force head and the obligatory movement of the finite verb to the Topic head, the structure of the left periphery becomes more visible.