Right-Dislocation as scrambling

Abstract

The present paper shows that Right-Dislocation (RD) in Japanese shares a number of characteristics with scrambling, but nonetheless cannot be identified as rightward scrambling. The proposed solution to this apparent contradiction is that there is no direct syntactic movement of the right-dislocated phrase. Rather, the right-dislocated phrase is a remnant of an extra clause which is deleted (or sluiced) after scrambling. It is therefore concluded that RD involves leftward movement (scrambling) and that its rightward effect is only apparent. The proposed analysis is supported by a number of facts that have not previously been reported, including the distribution of adverbs, pronominal coreference, anaphor binding, idiom interpretations and wh-questions. The proposed analysis is also consistent with Kayne’s (1994) proposal that there are no rightward movement processes in syntax.

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