Scrambling

Definition
Scrambling is a cover term for a specific kind of word order variation.

In the study of Germanic SOV-languages the term is used to refer to word order variation of argument NPs with respect to each other and/or with respect to adverbial phrases.

Example
In German an object may follow or precede an adverb (object and adverb may be scrambled):

(i)   a  Er hat ihr vielleicht dieses Buch gegeben he has her maybe     this   book given b Er hat ihr dieses Buch vielleicht gegeben

Two objects may be scrambled as well:

(ii)	 Er hat dieses Buch vielleicht ihr gegeben

And sometimes an object - den Max in (iii) - may even scramble over the subject, as in (iii)b:

(iii) a  ... dass jeder den Max kennt that everyone (the) Max knows b ... dass den Max jeder kennt

It seems that definiteness is a factor interfering with scrambling. Nonspecific indefinite NPs cannot be scrambled and neither can particles or small clause predicates. One point of controversy is whether scrambling is a case of movement (of NP) and if so whether it is A-bar movement or not.

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

Other languages

 * German Scrambling (de)