Object shift and scrambling

Abstract

This paper addresses questions concerning the nature and availability of scrambling from the point of view of comparative syntax, focusing mainly on English and Japanese. It is shown that both English and Japanese have short scrambling (i.e., scrambling to VP), whereas only Japanese has longer scrambling as well. On the basis of detailed examination of double complement constructions in the two languages, it is argued that English has a kind of overt object shift that moves an accusative DP within VP rather than to a VP-external position where its Case is to be checked, and that this 'partial' object shift results from short scrambling, analyzed as optional, non-feature-checking movement. It is also shown that the obligatoriness of partial object shift in English can be explained in a principled manner in terms of Attract-F and convergence. This proposal not only has important consequences and implications for certain related theoretical and empirical domains, but also provides significant insights into the nature of scrambling and the theory of parametric variation