We investigate an understudied phenomenon in the grammar of Pangasinan (northern Philippines), termed argument “apposition” in the Benton 1971 grammar of the language, supported by original elicitation work. Benton observes that arguments in Pangasinan are frequently introduced not by a run-of-the-mill case-marked nominal, but instead by a pronoun followed by a corresponding noun phrase (which we call the “associate”) which “identif[ies] the entity represented by the pronoun” (Benton, 1971: 145).

What is the relationship between the pronoun and the corresponding associate phrase? Based on novel evidence from binding and movement, we propose that these associates are not in regular argument positions and are built apart from their corresponding pronouns — thus similar to right dislocation/afterthoughts in other languages and supporting Benton’s “apposition” description but later syntactically integrated into and linearized within the clause.

Keywords: Austronesian Pangasinan Austronesian voice apposition left dislocation word order syntax