Focus Scrambling in Dutch:

A Word Order Option in Decline

Jack HoeksemaUniversity of Groningen

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

Scrambling is found in

German Dutch Japanese Korean Hindi SOV-languages in general?

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”

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

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>)

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

Definite DPs in light-verb structures

We moeten nog de was doenwe 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

Focus Scrambling (Neeleman 1994)

Jan is nog nooit snel geweestJan 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 geweestJan is so fast yet never been“Jan has never been so fast yet”

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”

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

In fact, Neeleman only gives examples involving the deictic items zo ‘so’ and zulk ‘such’

Delimitation problem: What is the set of itemswhich may undergo F-scrambling?(To be partially answered in the remainder

of this talk)

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

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

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

Reconstruction

Anaphora (backward binding)

Dat we zo’n foto van zichzelf zelfs dezethat we s/a photo of himself even this

acteur niet tonenactor not show“That we are not even going to show this actor such a picture of himself”

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] magI believe that his mother everyone likes“I believe that everyone likes his mother”

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”

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

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)

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

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.

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)

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)

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 undoneEven were one completely covered by steelOne cannot in the least withstand thy force”

Decline of F-Scrambling: in het minst

Period beginning F-scrambling No F-scrambling

% F-scrambling

1600 43 1 98

1650 49 1 98

1700 43 5 90

1750 32 8 80

1800 36 23 62

1850 90 44 67

1900 65 81 45

1950 30 194 14

2000 2 60 3

trends

0

20

40

60

80

100

1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

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”

De minste

Period beginning

F-scrambling No F-scrambling

% F-scrambling

1600 4 0 100

1650 3 6 33

1700 15 10 60

1750 5 6 45

1800 3 35 8

1850 4 72 5

1900 2 67 2

1950 0 80 0

2000 0 13 0

het nauw nemen met

De kracht der voorbeelden is welligt de reden, waarom men het gedurende langen tijd met de definities der rededeelen zoo naauw niet 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”

zo nauw nemen (kijken)

Period F-Scrambling No F-scrambling % F-Scrambling

1700 1 0 100

1750 3 0 100

1800 9 0 100

1850 17 2 89

1900 10 10 50

1950 2 66 3

2000 1 55 2

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”

zo dra / ras / haast

Period F-Scrambling No F-Scrambling % F-Scrambling

1700 21 2 91

1750 23 4 85

1800 9 5 64

1850 6 5 55

1900 3 10 23

1950 1 8 11

2000 0 3 0

bij lange na / lang zo A

Period F-Scrambling No F-Scrambling % F-scrambling

1700 6 0 100

1750 14 0 100

1800 19 3 86

1850 21 13 64

1900 11 19 37

1950 7 26 21

2000 4 19 17

Effect of LANG on f-scrambling: Google hits

lang zo goed niet 198 zo goed niet 2190

lang niet zo goed 917 niet zo goed 99,800

lang zo snel niet 56 zo snel niet 2790

lang niet zo snel 333 niet zo snel 47,200

lang zo mooi niet 96 zo mooi niet 298

lang niet zo mooi 602 niet zo mooi 13,500

zo’n vaart lopen

Period F-Scrambling No F-Scrambling % F-Scrambling

< 1900 6 1 83

1900 23 4 86

1950 46 22 68

2000 36 24 60

de enige

Period F-scrambling No F-scrambling % F-scrambling

<1800 9 0 100

1800 5 5 50

1850 12 11 52

1900 9 19 32

1950 12 73 14

2000 12 88 12

zijn zaak

Dat is mijn zaak niet

that is my concern not

“That is not my concern” Dat is niet mijn zaak

“id”

zijn zaak

Period F-scrambling No F-scrambling % F-scrambling

1700 - - -

1750 8 0 100

1800 4 0 100

1850 6 1 86

1900 5 2 71

1950 39 24 62

2000 14 15 48

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)

0102030405060708090

100

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

in het minst de minstezo nauw nemen zo dralang zo A zo'n vaartde enige zijn zaak

All changes

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)

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

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