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Abstract:
In Japanese a scrambled phrase is adjoined to IP leaving a
trace in its base-generated position (Saito 1985). Haig (1976)
noticed that a pause is required after a long-distance scrambled
phrase. One interpretation of his observation is that a scrambled
phrase forms an intonational phrase by itself when it is extracted
from the embedded clause (long-distance scrambling (LD)) whereas it
does not when it is extracted from the main clause (short-distance
scrambling (SD)). This is captured by (1), which was tested in a
comprehension experiment.
(1) A scrambled phrase must be an intonational phrase if it is
IP-adjoined and binds a trace more than one clause down.
The principle in (1) requires a separate intonational phrase for
a long-distance scrambled phrase but not necessarily for a
short-distance scrambled phrase.
40 native speakers of Japanese were asked to rate for the
difficulty of 16 one vs. two clause scrambling sentences, one
example of which is shown in (2). Each sentence was pronounced with
the scrambled phrase forming an intonational phrase on its own,
(3a, 3b) or together with the subject of the main clause, (3c, 3d).
Perceivers rated the sentences on a scale from "1" easy/fine to "5"
difficult/odd.
(2)
a. Rooma-no mahuraa-o-i kinoo
hisyoti-no kaseihu-ga
Rome-gen muffler-acc-i yesterday
resort-gen cleaning woman nom
syuzin-no bessoo-de kireini t-i
aratta.
master-gen villa-in cleanly t-i
washed
'A muffler (produced) in Rome-i,
yesterday a cleaning woman in a summer resort was washing t-i in
(her) master's villa.' (SD)
b. Rooma-no mahuraa-o-i kinoo
hisyoti-no kaseihu-ga
Rome-gen muffler-acc-i yesterday
resort-gen cleaning woman-nom
bessoo-no syuzin-ga t-i
aratteita-to itta.
villa-gen master-nom t-i was
washing-that said
'A muffler (produced) in Rome-i,
yesterday a cleaning woman in a summer resort said that a master
of villa was washing t-i.' (LD)
(3)
a. (Object-i)(Adverb
Subject)(Adjunct Adverb t-i Verb)
Scrambling: Short Prosody: (XP)
Mean rating: 1.59
b. (Object-i)(Adverb
Subject)(Subject t-i Verb Verb)
Scrambling: Long Prosody: (XP) Mean
rating: 2.33
c. (Object-i Adverb
Subject)(Adjunct Adverb t-i Verb)
Scrambling: Short Prosody: (XP Adv.
Subj.)Mean rating: 2.10
d. (Object-i Adverb
Subject)(Subject t-i Verb Verb)
Scrambling: Long Prosody: (XP Adv.
Subj.)Mean rating: 2.86
As predicted, (3d) was rated as more difficult than (3b).
However, (3c) was also rated more difficult than (3a), suggesting
that perceivers prefer the initial phrase to be an intonational
unit by itself regardless of whether it is scrambled short-distance
(SD) or long-distance (LD). Statistical analyses indicated no
significant interaction between the scrambling-distance and the
prosody-phrasing factors, although each of these factors had a
highly significant main effect. A similar pattern of effects was
observed when nominative NPs were scrambled. These results
disconfirm the formulation of Haig's observation in (1).
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