Scrambling (linguistics)

Within transformational grammar, scrambling is a common term for pragmatic word order.[1] In the Chomskian tradition, word orders of all languages are taken to be derived from a common source with a fundamental word order, so languages which do not follow a set pattern can be said to be "scrambled" from a "normal" word order. Two subtypes of scrambling are generally identified: scrambling of phrases (noun phrases, prepositional phrases, complementizer phrases, etc., or more generally, of arguments), and scrambling of words within phrases.

Notes

  1. ^ This term was coined by John R. Ross in his 1967 dissertation, published as Ross 1986, and is widely used in generative approaches.

See also

References