NQ-Scrambling in Japanese

This presentation investigates the syntactic properties of scrambling of numeral quantifiers (henceforth, NQ-scrambhng), which contrast with those of the scrambling of DPs (henceforth, DP-scrambling) with respect to (i) anaphor binding and (ii) quantifier scope. Whenever DP-scrambling affects the (binding/scope)interpretation, NQ-scrambling does not. In other words, every instance of NQ-scrambling ((i) "NQ-floating," which preposes NQ, leaving its host NP in-situ and (ii) "NQ-stranding," which moves NP, leaving its associated NQ in-situ) always turns out to be "semantically vacuous" in the relevant sense. There are two contrasting approaches to captufe the structural relationship between NQs and their host NPs. One approach (Miyagawa 1989, Koizumi 1995, among others) treats them as syntactically separate phrases. The other approach (Kamio 1983, Kawashima 1998, among others) argues that they form a single constituent. We will argue that the "semantically vacuous" nature of NQ-scrambling supports the latter approach. Specifically, we will claim that, coupled with the standard assumption that D and Num are the locus of referentiality and scope, Kawashima's (1998) proposal concerning the derivation of NQ-scrambling naturally explains the semantically vacuous nature of NQ-scrambling. Hence, if our analysis is on the right track, it provides further support for Kawashima's single constituent analysis of the structure of noun phrases.