DOUBLE OBJECT SCRAMBLING: SOME INFORMATION STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS
Abstract
Based on O(ld) E(nglish) and O(ld) Ice(landic) data, this paper argues that Scrambling is an optional movement device that mediates the way discourse roles correlate with constituent order and seeks to pin down the ways the core properties of Scrambling interface with semantic/ discourse/ informational/ prosodic factors. The author of the paper follows Wallenberg 2009 in describing Scrambling as an optional displacement operation that moves internal Arguments and Adjuncts into left-phrasally-adjoined targets in keeping with Conservation of C-Command. If Scrambling is internal adjunction, it is the syntactic status of this movement device which defines its optional character, viz Scrambling is optional in narrow syntax, given that it is not constrained by some feature-checking mechanism. While the present proposal asserts that Scrambling is an optional displacement operation, it stands apart from those optional movement approaches which hold that Scrambling is a semantically-vacuous operation. An optional syntactic operation like Scrambling can interact with general discourse principles, viz the basic claim underlying this analysis is that Scrambling is a semantically and pragmatically effective movement device.
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