Double detached Themes
Two detached Themes may occur together, the first an Absolute, the second a left- dislocation. The relationship between them must be pragmatically relevant.
1 And Ben, his sister, she has disabling osteo-arthritis.
2 And this consultant, what I like about him is that he doesn’t pass everyone on to his underlings; he attends to you himself.
3 The white house opposite, the woman who lives there, her dog, he’s had to be put down.
In 2 there is a wh-cleft, what I like about him, which is not detached. Both of these combinations are heard in spoken English, but rarely find their way into the written language. In fact, for many speakers, multiple and even single left-detachments do not occur in the best usage. In 3 there are three detached nominal groups, the last of which, her dog, is picked up by the pronoun he. The function of multiple detachments is to ‘anchor’ the final referent to other related referents, which are presumed to be accessible to the hearer.
