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Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 15: Selected papers from 'Going Romance' 30, Frankfurt
Edited by Ingo Feldhausen, Martin Elsig, Imme Kuchenbrandt and Mareike Neuhaus
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 15] 2019
► pp. 177–196

Chapter 9
Prosody-driven scrambling in Italian

ORCID logo | University College London

In Italian, the syntactic layout of the constituent following a postverbal focus affects whether its internal components may scramble above the preceding focus. The governing factor is the phonological phrasing projected by the constituent. Scrambling is only possible when it improves stress alignment with the right boundary of the intonational phrase wrapping the sentence. This study provides further evidence that the classic T-model where syntax feeds prosody needs to be amended and allow for prosody-syntax interaction. As this study shows, OT provides a possible model for such interaction that entirely dispenses with interface-related stipulations.

Keywords: prosody, syntax, interface, focus, scrambling, Italian, OT
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Prosody-driven scrambling
    • Case I (independent phrases)
    • Case II (head-complement)
  • 3.Detailed analysis
    • 3.1Case I – Independent phrases can scramble
      • Input A1
      • Input A2
      • Input A3
      • Input A4
    • 3.2Case II – Complements of overt lexical heads cannot scramble
      • Input A1 and A2
      • Input A3
      • Input A4
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 9 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.15.09sam
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