Abstract
This paper examines free object order alternation in ditransitives, focusing on Slovenian. It is shown that neither a scrambling nor a base generation analysis is fully satisfactory. A new analysis based on the Labeling Algorithm is proposed, where it is argued that the introduction of a second object creates an ambiguous labeling scenario ({NP,VP}), which has two equivalent resolutions: (i) movement of the VP with the first object inside, or (ii) movement of the second object. This is shown to derive both free object order in the general case and the restrictions on object order in select contexts, as due to the specifics of the VP-movement analysis it is possible for selectional restrictions to filter out either derivation (i) or (ii).
Acknowledgments
This paper had a long gestating period, going back to my undergraduate thesis in 2012, and I cannot possibly thank everyone who I received valuable feedback from over the years, so I will single out Tatjana Marvin, without whom this project would not exist and without whom I would not be a linguist today. Additionally, I would like to thank the audiences at my talks at FASL 25, LSA 92, DGfS 44, GLOW in Asia 13, audiences at NYU and UMass, and the students in my Problems in Syntax seminar at UConn in Spring 2023. Lastly, I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers, whose comments helped improve this paper significantly.
References
Abels, Klaus. 2003. Successive cyclicity, anti-locality, and adposition stranding. UConn Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Adler, Julia. 2011. Dative alternations in German: The argument realization options of transfer verbs. Hebrew University Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis, Elena Anagnostopoulou & Christina Sevdali. 2014. Opaque and transparent datives, and how they behave in passives. The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 17(1). 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-014-9064-8.Search in Google Scholar
Allerton, David J. 1978. Generating indirect objects in English. Journal of Linguistics 14(1). 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226700005648.Search in Google Scholar
Anagnostopoulou, Elena. 2003. The syntax of ditransitives: evidence from clitics. Berlin: De Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Antonyuk, Svitlana. 2015. Quantifier scope and scope freezing in Russian. SUNY Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Aoun, Joseph & Audrey Yun-Hui Li. 1989. Scope and constituency. Linguistic Inquiry 20(2). 141–172.Search in Google Scholar
Baltin, Mark R. 1989. Heads and projections. In Mark R. Baltin & Anthony S. Kroch (eds.), Alternative conceptions of phrase structure, 1–16. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Barss, Andrew & Howard Lasnik. 1986. A note on anaphora and double objects. Linguistic Inquiry 17. 347–354.Search in Google Scholar
Beermann, Dorothee. 2001. Verb semantics and double object constructions – a constraint-based approach to double object constructions in German. In Elena Anagnostopoulou & Marc van Östendorp (eds.), Progress in grammar: Articles at the 20th anniversary of the Comparison of Grammatical Models Group in Tilburg, vol. I (MIEPiL). Amsterdam: Roquade.Search in Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 1994. D-structure, θ-criterion, and movement into θ-positions. Language Analysis 24. 247–286.Search in Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2016. On the timing of labeling: Deducing comp-trace effects, the subject condition, the adjunct condition, and tucking in from labeling. The Linguistic Review 33. 17–66. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2015-0013.Search in Google Scholar
Bruening, Benjamin. 2001. QR obeys superiority: Frozen scope and ACD. Linguistic Inquiry 17(2). 233–273. https://doi.org/10.1162/00243890152001762.Search in Google Scholar
Bruening, Benjamin. 2010. Ditransitive asymmetries and a theory of idiom formation. Linguistic Inquiry 41(4). 519–562. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00012.Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1957. Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.10.1515/9783112316009Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press.10.21236/AD0616323Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1975. The logical structure of linguistic theory. New York: Plenum Press.Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The minimalist program. Cambridge: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In Roger Martin, David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka (eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalism in honor of Howard Lasnik, 89–155. Cambridge: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2013. Problems of projection. Lingua 130(0). 33–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.12.003.Search in Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2015. Problems of projection: Extensions. In Elisa Di Domenico, Cornelia Hamann & Simona Matteini (eds.), Structures, strategies and beyond: Studies in honor of Adriana Belletti, 1–16. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.223.01choSearch in Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 2005a. A smuggling approach to raising in English. Linguistic Inquiry 36(2). 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1162/0024389053710701.Search in Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 2005b. A smuggling approach to the passive in English. Syntax 8(2). 81–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9612.2005.00076.x.Search in Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 2014. Merge(X,Y) = {X,Y}. NYU Ms.Search in Google Scholar
Collins, Chris. 2021. A smuggling approach to the dative alternation. In Adriana Belletti & Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in syntax, 96–107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780197509869.003.0005Search in Google Scholar
Cuervo, Maria Christina. 2003. Datives at large. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Dowty, David R. 1978. Governed transformations as lexical rules in a Montague Grammar. Linguistic Inquiry 9(3). 393–426.Search in Google Scholar
Dvořák, Věra. 2010. On the syntax of ditransitive verbs in Czech. In Formal approaches to Slavic linguistics 18, 161–177. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Emonds, Joseph & Rosemarie Whitney. 2006. Double object constructions. In Martin Evaraert & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), The blackwell companion to syntax, chap. 21, 73–144. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.10.1002/9780470996591.ch21Search in Google Scholar
Epstein, Samuel David, Hisatsugu Kitahara & T. Daniel Seely. 2014. Labeling by minimal search: Implications for successive-cyclic a-movement and the conception of the postulate “phase”. Linguistic Inquiry 45. 463–481. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00163.Search in Google Scholar
Franks, Steven. 1994. Parametric properties of numeral phrases in Slavic. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 12(4). 597–674. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00992929.Search in Google Scholar
Georgala, Effi. 2011. Applicatives in their structural and thematic function: A minimalist account of multitransitivity. Cornell Unversity Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Georgala, Effi, Waltraud Paul & John Whitman. 2008. Expletive and thematic applicatives. In Charles B. Chang & Hannah J. Haynie (eds.), Proceedings of WCCFL 26, 181–189. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Search in Google Scholar
Gračanin-Yuksek, Martina. 2006. Double object construction in Croatian: Arguments against Appl0. In Richard Compton, Magdalena Goledzinowska & Ulyana Savchenko (eds.), Formal approaches to Slavic linguistics 16, 94–112. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Green, Georgia M. 1974. Semantics and syntactic regularity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Grohmann, Kleanthes K. 2003. Prolific domains: On the anti-locality of movement dependencies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.66Search in Google Scholar
Gropen, Jess, Steven Pinker, Michelle Hollander, Richard Goldberg & Ronald Wilson. 1989. The learnability and acquisition of the dative alternation in English. Language 65(2). 203–257. https://doi.org/10.2307/415332.Search in Google Scholar
Haddican, William. 2010. Theme–goal ditransitives and theme passivisation in British English dialects. Lingua 120(10). 2424–2443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2009.11.003.Search in Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi. 1995. Abstracting away from abstract case. In Jill N. Beckman (ed.), Proceedings of NELS 25, 207–221. Amherst, MA: GLSA.Search in Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi. 2002. Possession and the double object construction. Linguistic Variation Yearbook 2. 29–68. https://doi.org/10.1075/livy.2.04har.Search in Google Scholar
Harwood, Will, Marko Hladnik, Sterre Leufkens, Tanja Temmerman, Norbert Corver & Jeroen van Craenenbroeck. 2016. Idioms: Phasehood and projection. KU Leuven & Universiteit Utrecht Manuscript. Available at: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/002951.Search in Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Christa König. 2010. On the linear order of ditransitive objects. Language Sciences 32(1). 87–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2008.07.002.Search in Google Scholar
Hoji, Hajime. 1985. Logical Form constraints and configurational structures in Japanese. University of Washington Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Holmberg, Anders & Christer Platzack. 1995. The role of inflection in Scandinavian syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195067453.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Holmberg, Anders, Michelle Sheehan & Jenneke van der Wal. 2019. Movement from the double object construction is not fully symmetrical. Linguistic Inquiry 50(4). 677–722. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00322.Search in Google Scholar
Ilc, Gašper & Tatjana Marvin. 2016. Unaccusatives in Slovenian from a crosslinguistic perspective. In Lanko Marušič & Rok Žaucer (eds.), Formal studies in Slovenian syntax. In honor of Janez Orešnik, 145–166. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.236.07ilcSearch in Google Scholar
Ingason, Anton Karl, Einar Freyr Sigurðsson & Jim Wood. 2016. Displacement and subject blocking in verbal idioms: Evidence from passive-like constructions in Icelandic. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 96. 26–49.Search in Google Scholar
Jónsson, Jóhannes Gísli. 1996. Clausal architecture and case in icelandic. UMass, Amsherst Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Jónsson, Jóhannes Gísli. 2000. Case and double objects in Icelandic. In Diane Nelson & Paul Foulkes (eds.), Leeds working papers in linguistics 8, 71–94. Leeds: University of Leeds.Search in Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard S. 2005. Prepositions as probes. In Movement and silence, 85–104. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179163.003.0005Search in Google Scholar
Kitagawa, Yoshishisa. 1994. Shells, yolked, and scrambled E.g.s. In Mercè Gonzàlez (ed.). Proceedings of NELS 24, vol. 1, 221–239. Amherst, MA: GLSA.Search in Google Scholar
Kristínardóttir, Iðunn & Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson. 2022. Prepositional vs. indirect objects in Icelandic. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 107. 32–46.Search in Google Scholar
Lacerda, Renato. 2020. Middle-field syntax and information structure in Brazilian Portuguese. UConn Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. 1988. On the double object construction. Linguistic Inquiry 19(3). 335–392.Search in Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. 1990. Double objects revisited: Reply to Jackendoff. Linguistic Inquiry 21(4). 589–632.Search in Google Scholar
Lasnik, Howard. 1995. Case and expletives revisited: On Greed and other human failings. Linguistic Inquiry 26(4). 615–633.Search in Google Scholar
Lebeaux, David. 2009. Where does binding theory apply? Cambridge: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/9780262012904.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Lechner, Winfried. 1998. Two kinds of reconstruction. Studia Linguistica 52(3). 276–310. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9582.00037.Search in Google Scholar
Lenardič, Jakob. 2019. A syntactic re-analysis of the Slovenian impersonal se-construction. In Franc Marušič, Petra Mišmaš & Rok Žaucer (eds.), Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2017 (Open Slavic Linguistics 3), 151–178. Berlin: Language Science Press.Search in Google Scholar
Mahajan, Anoop. 1990. The A/A-bar distinction and movement theory. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Marantz, Alec. 1993. Implications of asymmetries in double object constructions. In Sam A. Mchombo (ed.), Theoretical aspects of Bantu grammar 1, 113–151. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Marušič, Franc. 2005. On non-simultaneous phases. SUNY Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Marušič, Franc & Rok Žaucer. 2004. A reanalysis of the FEEL-LIKE dative-reflexive construction in Slovenian. In Olga Arnaudova, Wayles Browne, Maria-Luisa Rivero & Danijela Stojanović (eds.), Formal approaches to Slavic linguistics 12, 293–311. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Marvin, Tatjana. 2009. Applicative constructions in Slovenian. In Vrinda Chidambaram, Steven Franks & Brian D. Joseph (eds.), A linguist’s linguist: studies in South Slavic linguistics in honor of E. Wayles Browne, 297–315. Bloomingdale, IL: Slavica.Search in Google Scholar
Marvin, Tatjana. 2012. A note on applicatives. In Maria Cristina Cuervo & Yves Roberge (eds.), The end of argument structure? 185–208. Bingley: Emerald.10.1163/9781780523774_009Search in Google Scholar
Marvin, Tatjana & Adrian Stegovec. 2012. On the syntax of ditransitive sentences in Slovenian. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 59(1–2). 177–203. https://doi.org/10.1556/aling.59.2012.1-2.8.Search in Google Scholar
McFadden, Thomas. 2004. The position of morphological case in the derivation: A study on the syntax-morphology interface. UPenn Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
McGinnis, Martha Jo. 1998. Locality in A-movement. Cambridge: MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Miyagawa, Shigeru & Takae Tsujioha. 2004. Argument structure and ditransitive verbs in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 13. 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:jeal.0000007345.64336.84.10.1023/B:JEAL.0000007345.64336.84Search in Google Scholar
Miyagawa, Shigeru, Danfeng Wu & Masatoshi Koizumi. 2018. A revised labeling approach to long-distance agreement. In Proceedings of MAPLL × TCP × TL × TaLK (MT3), 1–6. Tokyo: IEICE.Search in Google Scholar
Mizuguchi, Manabu. 2019. Ambiguous labeling and full interpretation. Studia Linguistica 73(3). 563–603. https://doi.org/10.1111/stul.12109.Search in Google Scholar
Moore, John & David M. Perlmutter. 2000. What does it take to be a dative subject. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 18(2). 373–416. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1006451714195.10.1023/A:1006451714195Search in Google Scholar
Neeleman, Ad, Elena Titov, Hans van de Koot & Reiko Vermeulen. 2009. A syntactic typology of topic, focus and contrast. In Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (ed.), Alternatives to cartography, 15–52. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110217124.15Search in Google Scholar
Neeleman, Ad & Hans van de Koot. 2008. The nature of discourse templates. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 11(2). 137–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-008-9018-0.Search in Google Scholar
Nunberg, Geoffrey, Ivan Sag & Thomas Wasow. 1994. Idioms. Language 70. 491–538. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1994.0007.Search in Google Scholar
Oehrle, Richard Thomas. 1976. The grammatical status of the English dative alternation. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David. 1995. Zero syntax: Experiencers and cascades. Cambridge: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven. 1989. Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Primus, Beatrice. 1998. The relative order of recipient and patient in the languages of Europe. In Anna Siewierska (ed.), Constituent order in the languages of europe, 421–474. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110812206.421Search in Google Scholar
Pylkkänen, Liina. 2002. Introducing arguments. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Pylkkänen, Liina. 2008. Introducing arguments. Cambridge: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/9780262162548.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Rappaport Hovav, Malka & Beth Levin. 2008. The English dative alternation: The case for verb sensitivity. Journal of Linguistics 44. 129–167. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226707004975.Search in Google Scholar
Řezáč, Milan. 2003. The fine structure of Cyclic Agree. Syntax 6(2). 156–182. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9612.00059.Search in Google Scholar
Richards, Norvin. 2001. An idiomatic argument for lexical decomposition. Linguistic Inquiry 32. 183–192. https://doi.org/10.1162/002438901554649.Search in Google Scholar
Richards, Norvin. 2008. Can A-scrambling reorder DPs. MIT Ms. Available at: http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/papers/Ascrambling.pdf.Search in Google Scholar
Rivero, María Luisa & Milena Milojević Sheppard. 2003. Indefinite reflexive clitics in Slavic: Polish and Slovenian. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21(1). 89–155. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1021841517604.10.1023/A:1021841517604Search in Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1990. Relativized minimality. Cambridge: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 2016. Labeling, maximality and the head – phrase distinction. The Linguistic Review 33. 103–127. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2015-0016.Search in Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru. 1985. Some asymmetries in Japanese and their theoretical consequences. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru. 1992. Long distance scrambling in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1. 69–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00129574.Search in Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru. 2014. Case and labeling in a language without φ-feature agreement. In Anna Cardinaletti, Guglielmo Cinque & Yoshio Endo (eds.), On peripheries: Exploring clause initial and clause final positions, 269–297. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru. 2016. (A) Case for labeling: Labeling in languages without φ-feature agreement. The Linguistic Review 33. 129–177. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2015-0017.Search in Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru. 2018. Kase as a weak head. McGill Working Papers in Linguistics 25(1) (Special Issue in Honour of Lisa Travis). 382–391.Search in Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru & Naoki Fukui. 1998. Order in phrase structure and movement. Linguistic Inquiry 29(3). 439–474. https://doi.org/10.1162/002438998553815.Search in Google Scholar
Shlonsky, Ur. 2014. A note on labeling, Berber states, and VSO order. In Sabrina Bendjaballah, Noam Faust, Mohamed Lahrouchi & Nicola Lampitelli (eds.), The form of structure, the structure of form, 349–360. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/lfab.12.27shlSearch in Google Scholar
Siewierska, Anna & Ludmila Uhliřová. 1998. An overview of word order in Slavic languages. In Anna Siewierska (ed.), Constituent order in the languages of Europe. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110812206Search in Google Scholar
Sigurðsson, Halldór Ármann. 1989. Verbal syntax and case in Icelandic in a comparative gb approach. Sweden: University of Lund Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Stegovec, Adrian. 2012. Ditransitives in Slovenian: Evidence for two separate ditransitive constructions. University of Ljubljana BA thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Svenonius, Peter. 1994. C-selection as feature checking. Studia Linguistica 48(2). 133–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9582.1994.tb00853.x.Search in Google Scholar
Tada, Hiroaki. 1993. A/A-bar partition in derivation. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Titov, Elena. 2012. Information structure of argument order alternations. UCL Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Tomioka, Satoshi & Lan Kim. 2017. The give-type benefactive constructions in Korean and Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 26(3). 233–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-017-9158-9.Search in Google Scholar
Travis, Lisa deMena. 1984. Parameters and effects of word order variation. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Ura, Hiroyuki. 1996. Multiple feature checking: A theory of grammatical function splitting. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Williams, Edwin. 2006. Circumstantial evidence for dative shift. In Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riny Huybregts, Ursula Kleinhenz & Jan Koster (eds.), Organizing grammar, 661–668. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110892994.661Search in Google Scholar
Yatsushiro, Kazuko. 1999. Case licensing and VP structure. UConn Doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Yatsushiro, Kazuko. 2003. VP internal scrambling. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 12(2). 141–170. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022423427865.10.1023/A:1022423427865Search in Google Scholar
Zaenen, Annie, Joan Maling & Höskuldur Thráinsson. 1985. Case and grammatical function: The Icelandic passive. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 3(4). 441–483. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00133285.Search in Google Scholar
Zubizarretta, Maria Luisa. 1998. Word order, prosody, and focus. Cambridge: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Introduction: workspace, MERGE and labelling
- Articles
- On wh and subject positions, the EPP, and contextuality of syntax
- On Minimal Yield and Form Copy: evidence from East Asian languages
- A multi-dimensional derivation model under the free-MERGE system: labor division between syntax and the C-I interface
- Seeking an optimal design of Search and Merge: its consequences and challenges
- Large-scale pied-piping in the labeling theory and conditions on weak heads
- The third way: object reordering as ambiguous labeling resolution
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Introduction: workspace, MERGE and labelling
- Articles
- On wh and subject positions, the EPP, and contextuality of syntax
- On Minimal Yield and Form Copy: evidence from East Asian languages
- A multi-dimensional derivation model under the free-MERGE system: labor division between syntax and the C-I interface
- Seeking an optimal design of Search and Merge: its consequences and challenges
- Large-scale pied-piping in the labeling theory and conditions on weak heads
- The third way: object reordering as ambiguous labeling resolution