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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!
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