Scrambling as "Agreeless Move" in Japanese

Chomsky(1998) proposes that checking of features is executed by matching of relevant features, called Agree, without causing any movement, and that what has been called Move is decomposed into two operations: Agree and displacement (merge for EPP-requirement). Chomsky(1998) also claims that it is Agree, rather than displacement itself that is sensitive to Minimality effect. In this talk, basing on this mechanism in Chomsky (1998) and Fukui's (1986) suggestion that Japanese lacks φ-feature to be checked, I propose that Japanese scrambling is indeed displacement part of Move alone ("Agreeless Move"). Then, I show that the analysis of Japanese ill-formed remnant scrambling by Kitahara (1997) in which Minimal Link Condition plays a crucial role to exclude illegitimate derivations is replaced by the analysis based on the notion of Phase without mentioning Minimality effect. In this way, one of the core properties of optionality of scrambling, namely locality-free, can be sustained even under establishing Spec-head relation, and scrambling finds its natural place in the Minimalist program.