Focus Structure Architecture and P-Syntax

Nomi Shir, Natalia Strahov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper we discuss scrambling type phenomena in Danish [object shift (OS)], and Russian and argue that scrambling is a P(honological)-syntactic rule in the phonology. Our proposal is that Scrambling languages such as Russian employ P-syntactic scrambling to position foci VP-finally. Nonscrambling languages, or Topic-in-situ languages such as Scandinavian, may employ a different strategy: they prosodically incorporate destressed elements. The scrambling effect in Scandinavian is due to the fact that the incorporated constituent moves along with its host. We propose the "I" model architecture to allow for interpretive effects of scrambling.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)301-323
Number of pages23
JournalLingua
Volume114
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2004

Keywords

  • Focus structure
  • P-Syntax
  • Russian
  • Scandinavian
  • Scrambling

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Focus Structure Architecture and P-Syntax'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this