ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with three constructions in the French creoles in which a constituent is fronted, i.e. placed at the beginning of a sentence. These are cleft, topic, and left-dislocated constructions. It begins with a brief discussion of these constructions in English and French and then considers them in the French creoles. It fi rst surveys the cleft constructions and considers the similarities and differences in their structure. Then it turns to topic constructions; an interesting fi nding here is that some of the French creoles, just like French, do not allow this type of construction. The other creoles do, and inevitably the question of this difference presents itself. The chapter next considers dislocated constructions, both left and right, and examines the similarities and differences between the creoles. In particular, it focuses on the structure of these constructions and on the question of whether they allow multiple dislocated constituents.
