Scrambling in Japanese

[GUNJI Takao]

It seems I only replied to Tibor, so I'll send it again to the list.

>>> Tibor == kiss at linguistics.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (Tibor Kiss) wrote
>>> at Thu, 15 Jul 1999 15:26:03 +0200:

Tibor> I have a question concerning scrambling in Japanese: Given
Tibor> ditransitive constructions in Japanese, is it possible to
Tibor> scramble both objects in front of (i.e. to the left of) the
Tibor> subject, as illustrated in (1)?

Tibor> (1) Daremo-ni     dareka-o          John-ga syookaisita (koto).
Tibor>      everyone-dat somebody-acc John-nom introduced

I think this is a possible sentence, though 'daremo-ni' is rarely used
and the sentence is a bit unnatural. Is it possible to change it to
'minna-ni' and still make the same point?

(1')	Minna-ni     dareka-o John-ga syookaisita.
	everyone-DAT

Tibor> Moreover, if (1) is well-formed, is it ambiguous, as e.g. (2) is? I dare
Tibor> say it's not.

Tibor> (2) John-ga    dareka-o          daremo-ni     syookaisita (koto).
Tibor>      John-nom somebody-acc everyone-dat introduced

Again, let's change 'daremo-ni' into 'minna-ni':

(2')	 John-ga dareka-o minna-ni syookaisita (koto).

I think both (1') and (2') are ambiguous, though there is a difference in
preferences depending on the linear order. In (1') 'minna' tends to
take a wide scope, while in (2') 'dareka' does.

Tibor> ambiguous, too. Mysteriously, the analysis put forth in Aoun/Li (1993)
Tibor> suggests that (1) is not possible at all, because they assume that
Tibor> scrambling in Japanese is NP-movement to SpecIP. Since there is only one
Tibor> SpecIP, (1) should not be possible.

This type of argument depends on a lot of theory-internal
assumption. Even among G /MP circle, there are people who assume
multiple SPECs (e.g., Ura), no SPEC (e.g., Fukui). So, the 'mystery'
are epiphenomenon, I think.

Takao
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