Against information structure heads: A relational analysis of German scrambling

Abstract

This article argues against cascades of information-structural functional heads in the German middle field as an explanation for scrambling movements. Instead, we argue, some instances of scrambling correlate with sentence-level semantic effects, whereas other word order changes are affected by prosody and do not have any interpretative effects. An alternative architecture for scrambling is developed, which takes into account the clear empirical differences between these different subtypes of what is summarily called 'scrambling'. In this architecture, syntax underspecifies word order and is ignorant of information structure. The apparent interaction of word order, semantic interpretations and discourse is explained by an interface architecture that licenses word orders on the basis of their syntactic, semantic and prosodic (but not information structural) properties.

La gramàtica generativa i la facultat del llenguatge: descobriments, preguntes i desafiaments

“…For proposals along these lines and relevant evidence, see e.g. Fox (2000), Chomsky (2001Chomsky ( , 2008a, Reinhart (2006), Struckmeier 2016 Note that unlike classical X-bar Theory, a LABEL-based system allows for the possibility that a constructed object K remains unlabeled (exocentric), e.g. when K is a root clause or created by operations that are not head-oriented in any plausible sense, such as syntactic scrambling.…”

Constructions in Minimalism: A Functional Perspective on Cyclicity

“…Witness also that Müller (2010) has shown that was - für splits out of external subjects improve when the object scrambles across the subject (10b). In this example, scrambling the object ( den Fritz ) results in a syntactic configuration that is preferred in cases where the subject ( was für Bücher ) is interpreted as focal; this is due to a complex interplay between syntax, prosody, and pragmatic interpretation (see Struckmeier, 2017 on this point):…”

Indeterminacies and mismatches in grammatical systems

“…Some linguists tend to argue that there simply must be differences in meaning associated with the different structures [and such linguists are found in both the functionally minded as well as the formal camp, e. g. in syntactic cartography; for some criticisms, cf. Struckmeier 2014Struckmeier , 2017Struckmeier , 2020]. While we do not want to pre-judge whether different meanings of distinguishable forms will be observed at some point in the future, we must not fail to point out that such meaning distinctions are clearly not readily perceivable (at least for the time being).…”

“…The different word orders available in the German middle field thus do not strictly express information structural distinctions (like case markings helps express argument status). Rather, some authors assume (Bayer and Kornfilt 1994;Haider this volume;Fanselow 2001Fanselow , 2003Struckmeier 2014Struckmeier , 2017 that the grammar treats the word order as truly optional choices. But the use of these optionally available structures can still reflect discourse distinctions, maybe also in connection with the prosodic markings that also go into the computation of such discourse-related requirements.…”