The Role of Information Structure in Word Order Variation and Word order Change.

In this paper, I propose a novel account of word order variation and word order change in terms of competition between prosodically more or less marked forms within one grammar (contrary to the double base hypothesis). It is argued that variation within one grammar is due to the expression of different information-structural categories and word order change involves a change in the mapping between syntactic structure and prosodic structure in which Information Structure (IS) plays a crucial role

Zur Herausbildung der Satzklammer im Deutschen: ein Plädoyer für eine informationsstrukturelle Analyse.

Dieser Artikel behandelt die Herausbildung der Satzklammer aus einer informationsstrukturellen Perspektive. Zunächst wird anhand von Differenzbelegen aufgezeigt, dass die Tatianübersetzung eine Vielzahl von originären Strukturen in Nebensätzen aufweist, in denen Objekte und Prädikate, die im modernen Deutschen nicht extraponierbar sind, postverbal erscheinen. In Abschnitt 2 wird gezeigt, dass die Verteilung präverbaler und postverbaler Konstituenten nicht gut mit dem Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder erklärt werden kann, sondern auf eine informationsstrukturelle Regularität zurückgeführt werden muss, in der nachgestellte Konstituenten Informationsfokus darstellen und vom Hintergrundbereich des Satzes durch das (finite) Verb getrennt werden. In Abschnitt 3 wird erläutert, dass die Grammatikalisierung des definiten Artikels eine entscheidende Rolle in der Herausbildung der Satzklammer des modernen Deutschen gespielt hat, indem präverbale diskursanaphorische determinierte Nominalphrasen zur Abschwächung einer prosodischen Bedingung führen, die das Mittelfeld für schwere und betonte Konstituenten öffnet. In Abschnitt 4 werden die wichtigsten Schlussfolgerungen dieser Analyse zusammengefasst

Predicate Doubling and VP-topicalisation in German

The paper discusses several aspects of VP-remnant topicalization. It argues that the VP is vacuated by licensing movement of VP-internal material and provides arguments against an analysis in terms of distributed deletion

A Phase-based Comparative Approach to modification and word order in Germanic.

This paper proposes a novel phase-based approach to directionality parameters in Germanic. Basic OV and basic VO order are argued to follow from two interacting types of mapping constraints at the interfaces. The properties of event-related adjuncts are shown not to follow from a dual structure involving cascades but are derived by (silent) scrambling of arguments and adjuncts plus vP-intraposition that serves to license event-related adjuncts as (superimposed) predicate

Some Notes on Scrambling and Object Shift

Object shift in Scandinavian and scrambling in West Germanic have the same information-structural trigger - but differ in a number of respects. Most accounts of these phenomena thus assume that object shift and scrambling are different operations. The present paper tries to explore the ramification of a unified account in which language specific pecularities are related to different properties in the mapping between syntactic structure and prosodic structure

Scrambling, Optionality and Non-Lexical Triggers

This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of both the empirical nature and the theoretical implications of scrambling. I argue that the phenomenon of scrambling can only be done justice to if it is recognized that scrambling is subject to both PF- and LF-interface conditions. In particular, I address the claim by Haider&Rosengren (1998), henceforth H&R, that trigger accounts are essentially inappropriate for the phenomenon of scrambling on account of its optional nature. Contrary to H&R, I argue that a trigger account is indeed feasible in a copy theory of movement in which both LF- and PF-conditions determine which copy is to be spelled out. Furthermore, I argue that one type of trigger for scrambling involves scopal features of arguments. Scopal features are relational syntactic properties of scope taking elements and as such they are inherently non-lexical. I propose an extension of the minimalist framework that allows for the introduction of non-lexical features in the course of the derivation to account for this aspect of scrambling