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Scrambled or Sunny Side Up?

Jack HoeksemaCLCGU of Groningen

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Scrambling of definites

ScramblingJe hoeft je bord niet leeg t te etenYou have your plate not empty to eat“You don’t have to finish your plate’

Or not:Je hoeft niet je bord leeg te eten

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OT conditions (De Hoop 2003)

NEW: Anaphoric elements scramble (Anaphoric: prior mention: old before new)

STAY: No scrambling SC1 (= Surface Correspondence 1):

Definites Scramble

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Anttila’s Theory of Variation

An output candidate is predicted by the grammar iff it wins in some tableau (given a partial ranking of constraints)

If a candidate wins in n tableaux and t is the total number of tableaux, then the candidate’s probability of occurrence is n/t

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Anaphoric Definites

3 constraints relevant, so 6 possible orderings

when STAY dominates the rest, there is no scrambling, otherwise scrambling is optimal

in 2 out of 6 orderings, STAY is dominant So probability of scrambling is 2/3

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Nonanaphoric definites

NEW is irrelevant so only the interaction of STAY and

SC1 matters when STAY > SC1, no scrambling when SC1 > STAY, scrambling hence probability of scrambling for

nonanaphoric definites is 1/2

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Bidirectional perspective: Case 1, Scrambling

Def. NP < ADV NEW SC-1 STAY

+ANA *

-ANA *

Hearer perspective: both interpretations are optimal in case of Scrambling

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Bidirectional perspective:Case 2, Nonscrambling

Adv < Def. NP NEW SC-1 STAY

+ANA * *

-ANA *

Hearer perspective: in case of nonscrambling, nonanaphoric reading is optimal. Note that the ordering of the constraints is irrelevant

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So

De Hoop’s production OT predicts for [+anaphoric] definite noun phrases 67% scrambling, 33% nonscrambling

Bidirectional OT (using De Hoop’s constraints) would predict 100% scrambling, since nonscrambling would lead to [–anaphoric] readings

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Testing the theory: informally collected data

Features N % Predicted

+def, + anaph, + scr 44** 90 66,6%

+def, + anaph, - scr 5** 10 33,3%

+def, -anaph, +scr 42 47 50%+def, -anaph, -scr 48 52 50%

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Some specific combinations

Ik kan die vent niet uitstaanI can that guy not stand‘I cannot stand that guy’

*Ik kan niet die vent uitstaan

Note: die vent is an epithet, so +def, +anaphoric

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Internet data

die vent niet uitstaan: 33 occurrences (Google)

niet die vent uitstaan: 0 occurrences

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other epithets, with de

Ik kan de man niet uitstaanI can the man not stand‘I can’t stand the guy’

*Ik kan niet de man uitstaan

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or het

Ik kan het mens niet luchtenI can the woman not stand‘I can’t stand the woman’

*Ik kan niet het mens luchten

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or with other adverbs

Ik heb het mens nog gewaarschuwdI have the woman yet warned‘I did warn the woman’

*Ik heb nog het mens gewaarschuwd

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De/het N niet aankunnen ‘the N not can handle’

Hij kon de druk niet aan.He could the pressure not on‘He couldn’t handle the pressure’

Corpus data Def. Object: 37 cases of Scrambling 0 cases of Nonscrambling order

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[-anaphoric]

You have the right to remain silent

– Het recht ‘the right’– De tijd ‘the time’– De moed ‘the courage’– De energie ‘the energy’

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Rise of nonscrambling +def, –anaph direct objects of have/give/get (raw numbers)

Period +Scrambling -Scrambling

< 1850 12 -

1850-1900 19 3

1900-1950 39 15

1950-2000 36 34

2000-2008 42 44

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Rise of nonscrambling order among +def, –anaph direct objects of have/give (in %)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

<1850

1850

-190

0

1900

-195

0

1950

-200

8

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Zo veel N “so much N”

Ik heb niet zo veel geld I have not so much money

‘I don’t have so much money’ Ik heb zo veel geld niet

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Raw numbers ZO VEEL N

Period +Scrambling -Scrambling

< 1850 43 -

1850-1900 7 2

1900-1950 3 8

1950-2000 3 13

2000-2008 3 18

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Def. Objects versus ZO VEEL N

0102030405060708090

def obj zoveel N

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Conclusions

Scrambling of [- ANAPHORIC] definite objects is slowly on its way out

Scrambling is highly sensitive to the difference between [+ANAPHORIC] and [-ANAPHORIC] definites

Stochastic OT is probably more suitable for describing scrambling than Anttila’s theory of variation

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References

Helen de Hoop, 2003, ‘Scrambling in Dutch: Optionality and Optimality’, in: Simin Karimi, ed., Word Order and Scrambling, Blackwell.

Arto Anttila & Young-mee Cho, 1998, ‘Variation and Change in Optimality Theory.’ Lingua 104:31-56.

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Thanks for your attention!