In this paper, I study whether the claim that certain instances of scrambling count as syntactic wh-movement (Takahashi 1993) can be maintained through an acceptability judgment study of Korean native speakers. To be specific, I test (i) whether such scrambling lacks the so-called undoing effects and (ii) whether it shows wh-island effects. As for the first question, the results clearly show that such scrambling can be undone, just like other instances of scrambling and thus that the claim cannot be maintained. As for wh-island effects, I interpret the results as indicating that scrambling in general shows wh-island effects. Taken together, the results show that there is no reason to distinguish scrambling of wh-phrases to an interrogative clause from other instances of scrambling. However, they suggest that scrambling should be distinguished from the typical A'-movement in that its motivation is semantic effects and that it can be undone if not properly motivated.
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Disagreements about the Data
3. Testing Native Speakers' Judgments
4. Interpreting the Results
5. Misinterpretation Phenomenon
6. Further Questions about Undoing Effects
7. Conclusion
References
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