Prosody-Driven Scrambling in Italian
Vieri Samek-Lodovici
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003564
July 2017
Italian displays a scrambling pattern where the structure of the constituent following a postverbal focus affects which of its components can scramble before the focus . The actual governing factor is the prosodic phrasing pro-jected by the postfocal constituent. Scrambling is only possible when it im-proves the 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 replaced by a new model where prosody and syntax interact. As this study shows, OT provides a possi-ble model for such interaction that entirely dispenses with interface-related stipulations.