Focus Scrambling in Dutch: A Word Order Option in Decline

1. Focus Scrambling in Dutch:A Word Order Option in Decline Jack Hoeksema University of Groningen

2. Scrambling • appearance of objects and predicates to the left of adverbials • appearance to the left of the subject • usually treated as leftward movement • or in terms of base-generation

3. Scrambling is found in • German • Dutch • Japanese • Korean • Hindi • SOV-languages in general?

4. Scrambling is semantically relevant • Hans hat oft ein Buch mitgenommen hans has often a book along-taken “Hans often took a book along” • Hans hat ein Buch oft mitgenommen hans has a book often along-taken “Hans often took a particular book along”

5. Scrambling of indefinites • specific (a certain) • partitive (some of the) • de re • generic Cf. inter alia Helen de Hoop, 1992, Case Configuration and Noun Phrase Interpretation

6. No Scrambling of Indefinites • when they are predicates • or occur in light-verb constructions De Hoop: scrambling only possible for generalized quantifiers (type <<et>t>) not for predicates (type <et>)

7. Examples • Ik ben niet een held I am not a hero • *Ik ben een held niet I am a hero not • Ik moet nog een plas doen I must still a pee do “I still have to take a leak” • *Ik moet een plas nog doen I must a pee still do

8. Definite DPs in light-verb structures • We moeten nog de was doen we must still the wash do “We still have to do the laundry” • We moeten de was nog doen “id” De Hoop (2003): definites take type <e>, and may optionally scramble, without semantic consequences

9. Focus Scrambling(Neeleman 1994) • Jan is nog nooit snel geweest Jan is yet never fast been “Jan has never been fast yet” • *Jan is snel nog nooit geweest • Jan is nog nooit zo snel geweest Jan is yet never so fast been “Jan has never been so fast yet” • Jan is zo snel nog nooit geweest Jan is so fast yet never been “Jan has never been so fast yet”

10. F-Scrambling across subjects • omdat zo snel alleen een catamaran is because so fast only a catamaran is “because only a catamaran is that fast” • omdat zulke ogen zelfs Audrey niet had because such eyes even Audrey not had “because not even Audrey had such eyes”

11. Term Focus Scrambling: A Misnomer Focus is not a sufficient condition: • omdat de koningin alleen biefstuk at because the queen only beefsteak ate “because the queen only ate steak” • *omdat alleen biefstuk de koningin at

12. In fact, Neeleman only gives examples involving the deictic items zo ‘so’ and zulk ‘such’ Delimitation problem: What is the set of items which may undergo F-scrambling? (To be partially answered in the remainder of this talk)

13. Contrastive Pitch Accent Bayer and Kornfilt 1994, Choi 2001 F-scrambled items bear pitch, but are not new to the discourse (contrastive topics) Items that scramble are deictic/definite Possibilities in Dutch more restricted than in German

14. German vs Dutch • weil seine Mutter jeder mag (German) because his mother everyone likes “because everyone likes his mother” • *omdat zijn moeder iedereen mag (Dutch) because his mother everyone likes

15. Some properties of F-scrambling • syntactically less restrictive than ordinary scrambling (incl scrambling across subjects, scrambling of predicates, etc.) • semantically inert (reconstruction effects): scrambled order is equivalent to nonscrambled order

16. Reconstruction Anaphora (backward binding) • Dat we zo’n foto van zichzelf zelfs deze that we s/a photo of himself even this acteur niet tonen actor not show “That we are not even going to show this actor such a picture of himself”

17. More reconstruction effects Reverse variable-binding: Wen glaubst du mag jeder? who believe you likes everyone “Who do you believe everyone likes?” Ich glaube dass seine Mutter jeder[NOM] mag I believe that his mother everyone likes “I believe that everyone likes his mother”

18. Negative polarity triggering zo’n vaart lopen ‘walk that quickly’ • Dat loopt niet zo’n vaart that walks not such a speed “That won’t happen in a hurry” • Dat loopt zo’n vaart niet that walks such speed not “That won’t happen in a hurry”

19. een-twee-drie • Het schip zinkt niet zo een-twee-drie the ship sinks not so one-two-three “The ship won’t sink all that quickly” • Het schip zinkt zo een-twee-drie niet • *Het schip zinkt een-twee-drie niet

20. in het minst • Helga was niet in het minst tevreden Helga was not in the least content • Helga was in het minst niet tevreden (NB: absence of zo/zulk)

21. de minste • Mij kost het niet de minste inspanning me cost it not the slightest effort “It won’t cost me the slightest effort” • † Mij kost het de minste inspanning niet me cost it the slightest effort not

22. No focus scrambling for all NPIs • a. Ik heb niet met ook maar iemand gepraat. • I have not with even anyone talked • ‘I have not talked with anyone at all’ • a.’ *Ik heb met ook maar iemand niet gepraat. • b. Het is daar niet pluis. • It is there not OK/safe • ‘Things are not safe there’ • b.’ *Het is daar pluis niet. • c. Men sprak niet over enige mededinger. • One spoke not about any competitor • ‘One did not speak about any competitor’ • c.’ *Men sprak over enige mededinger niet.

23. im geringsten nicht • daher sah man oft die Müllerflöhe auf seinen Kleidern herumwandern, deren er sich im geringsten nicht schämet (H.J.C. von Grimmelshausen, Der abentheuerliche Simplicissimus Theutsch - 1667) • Man hat auch im geringsten nicht zu befürchten, dass die Erlernung der Arithmetik auf diese Art schwerer fallen und mehr Zeit erfordern werde (L. Euler, Vorbericht, Einleitung zur Rechenkunst, St. Petersburg, 1732)

24. nicht im geringsten • Bulgakow leugnet das gefährliche ausländische Echo nicht im geringsten, sondern bestätigt dessen Wahrheit. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11-1-1997, SB5) • Keine Panik, ich mag die Mädels auch, aber die können Erykah Badu nicht im geringsten das Wasser reichen (www.soulsite.de, 22-6-2003)

25. in het minst niet Niemant kan u gheschut, o Cupido, verdraghen, Ons borsten zijn te weeck, het is met ons ghedaen: Al waarmen heel in ’t staal bekloncken en beslaghen, Zo kan men doch u kracht in ’t minst niet wederstaen. (G.A. Bredero, Emblemata Amatoria, 1618) “Nobody can endure thy arrows, o Cupid, Our breasts are too soft, we are undone Even were one completely covered by steel One cannot in the least withstand thy force”

26. Decline of F-Scrambling: in het minst

27. trends

28. de minste niet In het tegenwoordig geval, sprak ik, hoeft gy daar omtrent de minste zwarigheid niet te maken (Justus van Effen, De Hollandsche Spectator, 1730) In the present case, I said, need you thereabout the least difficulty not to make = “in the present case, I said, you need not make the slightest difficulty about it”

29. De minste

30. het nauw nemen met De kracht der voorbeelden is welligt de reden, waarom men het gedurende langen tijd met de definities der rededeelen zoo naauwniet genomen heeft (De Taalgids, vol. 5, 1863) “The force of the examples is perhaps the reason, why one did not look too closely at the definitions of the parts of the sentence”

31. zo nauw nemen (kijken)

32. zo dra niet Hij had het zoo haast niet gezien of hij wierp er met veel handigheid zijn zijden zakdoek over (Hildebrand, Camera Obscura, 1840) he had it so soon not seen, or he threw there with much dexterity his silk handkerchief over “No sooner had he seen it, when he threw his handkerchief over it with much dexterity”

33. zo dra / ras / haast

34. bij lange na / lang zo A

35. Effect of LANG on f-scrambling: Google hits

36. zo’n vaart lopen

37. de enige

38. zijn zaak • Dat is mijn zaak niet that is my concern not “That is not my concern” • Dat is niet mijn zaak “id”

39. zijn zaak

40. Constant Rate Hypothesis “when one grammatical option replaces another with which it is in competition across a set of linguistic contexts, the rate of replacement [..] is the same in all of them” (Kroch 1989: 200)

41. All changes

42. Conclusions from the graph • all changes are headed in the same direction • onset of change varies (compatible with Krochs hypothesis) • speed of change varies as well (incompatible)

43. Previous evidence for constant rate • DO-support in various types of clauses • have/have got in British English • pro-drop in Brazilian Portugese • OV/VO in Yiddish

44. what could this mean? • the changes are not all connected, but represent several independent changes: Constant Rate Hypothesis is safe • differences among various expressions do not count as different contexts; that is, each expression may have a different rate of change, but this rate is the same in all environments of the change (e.g. main vs subordinate clauses, negative declaratives and negative imperatives, etc.): weakened Constant Rate Hypothesis • the Constant Rate Hypothesis does not hold