This chapter takes as its starting point the discussion in Section V9.2, which has shown that finite verbs can be found in basically two positions: the clause-final position in embedded clauses and the verb-first/second position in main clauses; the latter position is usually occupied by a complementizer in embedded clauses.

On the basis of these two positions, the clause can be divided into three topological fields: the clause-initial position, the middle field and the postverbal field; cf. representation (2).

Chapter V11 has shown that the C-position can be preceded by at most one constituent. However, there are cases, like those given in example (3), where this position is preceded by a second phrase. If the structure of the clause in (2) is indeed correct, we must conclude that the italicized phrases preceding the clause-initial position are clause-external. This seems to be supported by the fact that these phrases can be separated from the main clause by a distinct intonation break, indicated by a comma.

That the italicized phrases in (3) are clause-external is also suggested by the fact that they occur only in root contexts; cf. Van Riemsdijk & Zwarts (1997). For instance, the examples in (4) are excluded on the intended reading; the number signs indicate that vocatives and interjections can sometimes be used as parentheticals (if preceded and followed by an intonation break), but such cases are equivalent to cases where they precede the main clause, showing that they should be construed with the main clause, not the embedded clause.

The examples in (3) and (4) suggest that polar ja/nee, vocatives and interjections are not only extra-clausal but possibly even extra-sentential: this is supported by the fact that they also occur without an accompanying clause under the right extra-linguistic circumstances: ja/nee suffices as an answer to a yes/no question, vocatives can simply be used to attract attention, and interjections such as Lieve help! can be used in response to the occurrence of eventualities with certain undesirable qualities.

Since the italicized phrases in (3) are possibly extra-sentential, it is not clear whether they should treated in a work on syntax. Instead, these elements seem to play an important role in the discourse, e.g. by attracting the attention of the discourse participants (vocatives and certain interjections) and by expressing emotions (the exclamative Lieve help!). Discourse chunks such as (6) further show that such elements play an important role in structuring discourse by regulating turn-taking; the main-clause external element toch is used to request feedback and ja provides a response to this request. The main-clause external elements discussed so far are often referred to as pragmatic markers to indicate that they are generally assumed to be the subject of theories of language use.

Note, however, that certain main-clause external elements have long been considered by syntacticians. This is especially true for so-called left-dislocation constructions, as in the (a)-examples in (7), in which a main-clause external phrase is resumed by a demonstrative in clause-initial position or a referential pronoun in the middle field of the clause; the intended reading is indicated by indices. The same is true for phrases following the clause: these are often not discussed in syntactic work, except for right-dislocated phrases, as in (7b), which have a correlate in the preceding clause.

Left and right-dislocated phrases differ from the possibly extra-sentential phrases of the type mentioned above in that they do not primarily have a pragmatic function, but instead play an important role in shaping the information structure of utterances. Since this work is not concerned with the actual use of utterances, the focus of this chapter will be on left and right-dislocated phrases, which will be discussed in Sections 37.2 and 37.2, respectively. For the sake of completeness, however, Section 37.1 briefly discusses a number of main-clause external pragmatic markers.