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He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to—everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape.

From time to time I stumble upon this type of speech with comma + name after the main text to emphasize on a person. So, pronoun-text-comma-name.

Is this a specific dialect? Like, for example "I gonna kill'em" sounds southern-ish US.

English is not my mother tongue though I read a lot and such subtle things are of highest interest to me.

RegDwigнt
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Rossitten
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  • It might be a "cleft" construction, given the subject has been moved from its normal SVO position to the end of the utterance. Or it might illustrate "deletion" (of He at the start, and does before Snape). – FumbleFingers Nov 20 '14 at 00:50
  • word order change - yes, definitely! Though this is quite untypical (at least to me) one (VOS). the cleft - dosn't look like it is. In fact - it does what the cleft does - emphasizes onn something (on a person of Snape in the example). – Rossitten Nov 20 '14 at 00:58
  • @Rossitten *atypical – calvin Nov 20 '14 at 01:14
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    It's called right-[dislocation**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dislocation_(syntax)) and is common in conversational English. – StoneyB on hiatus Nov 20 '14 at 01:15
  • @Calvin http://www.learnersdictionary.com/qa/atypical-vs-untypical http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/untypical – Rossitten Nov 20 '14 at 01:20
  • @StoneyB - thanks a million! That's it!!! I've been bugging my English speaking fellwos for ages! Yahoo!! =) – Rossitten Nov 20 '14 at 01:22
  • thanks SoteyB the question is not a question anymore. To those , who are interested in learning more: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/38674/1/EWW-Postprint%20MDurham.pdf – Rossitten Nov 20 '14 at 01:23
  • @Rossitten From the first link, "When untypical is used, it is most often after the word not." Still think like atypical is clearer. – calvin Nov 20 '14 at 01:24
  • @Calvin - Both make sense but when you say so (and Google "privately" agrees) - let it be! I'll keep in mind that the "atypical" is better. Thank you – Rossitten Nov 20 '14 at 01:31
  • argh, I cannot vote up. How can I choose the best answer? – Rossitten Nov 20 '14 at 02:02

1 Answers1

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As StoneyB commented,

It's called right-dislocation and is common in conversational English

For more details, see Right dislocation in Northern England: frequency and use — perception meets reality (PDF) by Mercedes Durham, University of Aberdeen.

RegDwigнt
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Rossitten
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    It's called Dislocation if it leaves a pronoun copy behind. He knows a lot about potions, Snapes is right-dislocation. If it doesn't leave a pronoun copy behind, however (∅ Knows a lot about poisons, Snapes), it's simply Topicalization, which can work either to the left or to the right. This is important because Dislocation isn't subject to Ross Constraints -- not being a movement rule -- but Topicalization is. – John Lawler Nov 20 '14 at 02:42
  • I have noticed that Right Dislocation sentences often belong to (I hate the word) - simple minded persons. Something like peasant's speech or non educated person's one. Do authors use such style for this particular purpose (to show difference in language style between characters)? – Rossitten Nov 20 '14 at 03:32
  • Some do, some don't. They are way more common in speech than in writing so it's not easy to say what level of "education" is entailed by any written account. Probly anybody who believes education and diction reflect true class differences will find something to love in any such description. – John Lawler Nov 20 '14 at 04:25