Left-Dislocation and Topicalization in Technical English
5 exercises — practise fronting noun phrases for emphasis in technical discussions.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses left-dislocation to emphasize the authentication service in a discussion, using a resumptive pronoun?
"The authentication service, it needs a complete rewrite" is a correctly formed left-dislocation: the topic ("the authentication service") is fronted and set off with a comma, then restated with the resumptive pronoun "it" in the normal subject position of the following clause. Option A places the resumptive clause first and the noun phrase afterward, which is right-dislocation, not left-dislocation, and does not achieve the same fronted-emphasis effect being tested. Option B is a plain, unmarked sentence with no dislocation or added emphasis. Option D is ungrammatical, missing a subject entirely.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses topicalization (fronting an object without a resumptive pronoun) to emphasize a specific metric in a dashboard review?
"Latency, we need to reduce by the end of the quarter" is correct topicalization: the object "latency" is fronted to sentence-initial position for emphasis, leaving a gap where it would normally appear (after "reduce"), with no resumptive pronoun — this distinguishes topicalization from left-dislocation. Option A is the plain, unfronted sentence. Option C is a different emphatic structure, an it-cleft, not topicalization. Option D scrambles the word order in a way that is not standard topicalization.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses left-dislocation to emphasize a specific microservice while discussing ownership in a team meeting?
"The billing microservice, nobody on the team owns it anymore" is correct: the fronted topic "the billing microservice" is separated from the main clause by a comma, and the resumptive pronoun "it" appears in the object position within the clause. Option A omits the required comma after the fronted topic, making the sentence structurally unclear. Option B misplaces the fronted phrase in the middle of the clause, which is not valid left-dislocation. Option C omits the resumptive pronoun "it", which turns it into topicalization of the object rather than left-dislocation — but since "owns" needs an object and none remains, this option is ungrammatical.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses topicalization to emphasize a specific error type at the start of a bug triage discussion?
"Race conditions are the hardest bugs to reproduce" is correct as the plain, unmarked baseline sentence used here to test recognition: since "race conditions" is already the grammatical subject in normal position, there is no dislocation or fronting needed or possible in this sentence, making the unmarked SVO order the only fully correct option. Option A incorrectly adds a resumptive pronoun "they" even though "race conditions" has not been moved out of its normal subject position, which is redundant and non-standard. Option B awkwardly fronts the complement instead of the subject, producing unnatural word order. Option D incorrectly inserts a comma between the subject and its verb, breaking the clause.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses left-dislocation to contrast two deployment strategies in a design discussion?
"Blue-green deployments, we have used them successfully; canary releases, we are still evaluating them" correctly applies left-dislocation twice in parallel, each time fronting the topic with a comma and restating it with the resumptive pronoun "them" in the object position of its clause. Option A places the resumptive pronoun "them" at the end instead of directly after the verb, which is not standard English object position. Option B is topicalization (fronted objects, no resumptive pronouns), a valid but different structure from the left-dislocation being tested. Option C fronts the topics with commas but omits the resumptive pronouns entirely, leaving the clauses without an object, which is ungrammatical for a true left-dislocation.