Scrambling: Nontriggered Chain Formation in OV Languages

Abstract

In this paper we argue for the following properties of clause-bound scrambling, as they are manifested in German. First, scrambling presupposes head-final projections. Only selected constituents, notably arguments, scramble, the reason being that phrases selected by a head have a unique base order. Second, scrambling involves antecedent-gap dependencies with A-chain properties. Third, scrambling is overt and non-string-vacuous. Fourth, scrambling is syntactically optional, clause-bound, category neutral, and may apply to more than one phrase per clause. Fifth, scrambled elements remain transparent for extraction; they are licit binders and take scope.Furthermore, we evaluate our conclusion that scrambling is contingent on the "OV" property by examining Yiddish, an uncontroversial scrambling Germanic language with controversial VO versus OV status. We argue that Yiddish is a variant of an OV language-thus allowing scrambling-and that it is the only Germanic language with alternative V-positions in a VP-shell structure, like Hindi, and, arguably, like Slavic languages. * 1 Chomsky (1995:324) suggests that operations such as extraposition and scrambling "may not really belong to the system we are discussing here as we keep closely to ... movement driven by feaure checking within the N-£ computation," where N is a numeration and £ is LF.206 Haider and Rosengren scrambling operates. In section 4 we derive the fact that scrambling applies to selected items only, notably arguments. Section 5 recapitulates the coverage of the facts under our analysis. In section 6 we argue that Yiddish is basically OV and not VO, whence scrambling is expected. Section 7 summarizes the paper. Theoretical Background.The main concern of this paper is an empirically adequate modeling of scrambling, paying attention to a nontechnical key issue of the minimalist program in its later versions (Chomsky 1998(Chomsky , 1999, namely optionality. Chomsky's (1998Chomsky's ( , 1999 ideas differ from those of Chomsky 1995 with respect to "bare output conditions": Covert movement is avoided and replaced by a matching operation that erases uninterpretable features of the target by matching them with features of the probe. As expected, these features are case and agreement features. Movement (or chain formation) is thus overt and feature-triggered. We argue that accounts in terms of feature-driven movement are inadequate for scrambling.In our view, overt operations are allowed when grammar does not forbid them and are licensed either by structural requirements, such as one that requires the movement of the finite verb in root V2-clauses, or by the possibility to exploit them in a systematic way at the syntaxexternal interfaces. This we assume to hold for the EPP as well as for scrambling. 3 Our starting point is a traditional CP-IP-VP structure for the Germanic VO languages. We do not see the need or justification for any inherently Agr-type projections. We assume only projections that may match the inflectional features of the verb, among others, TP. ...

Left peripheral focus: mismatches between syntax and information structure

“…Haider (1981) proposed that 'new' binding options of XPs in SpecCP are established before the phrase moves to SpecCP. In current terms, this means that new binding options are due to an intermediate derivational step (e.g., scrambling) that has properties of A-movement (Fanselow 2001;Haider and Rosengren 2003;Frey 2004). This explains the differences in (76).…”

Information structure and unmarked word order in (Older) Germanic

“…This account is superior to Haider & Rosengren's (2003) account, since they provide no obvious way of connecting verb placement and focussing. The OV-properties of Yiddish in the present account are treated as superficial properties derived in the syntax-prosody interface.…”

“…Given that the VP is analysed as the domain of existential closure (Diesing 1992), the base position of arguments must be taken to be postverbal. Haider & Rosengren (2003), applying the tests for OV/VO-properties of Vikner (2001), analyse Yiddish as an OV-language. In their approach the OV/VO-distinction signals a difference in the base structure: arguments in VO-languages are projected in vP-shells, while arguments in OV-languages are projected in stacked adjunction structures, as is illustrated in (35a-b).…”

“…To highlight the particulars of the present approach, I will compare it with Haider & Rosengren's (2003) account. While Haider & Rosengren (2003) assume a directionality parameter that is operative in the base, namely the directionality of argument-licensing within the vP (that forces the projection of vP-shells in VO-languages), I assume a universal VO-base order in which unmarked word order is determined by information-structural and prosodic requirements. In particular, I…”

In need of mediation: The relation between syntax and information structure

“…The set of plausible accounts is narrowed down by the observation that the givennessrelated laws, be they optional or not, also apply to pairs of XPs that are not scrambled relative to each other. Thus, given > new holds of pairs of adjuncts, too (see Lenerz 1977), although adjuncts arguably do not scramble (Haider-Rosengren 2003). Likewise, given > new is respected within DP-coordinations (Kučerová 2007), and there is no coordinationinternal scrambling.…”