Four kinds of object symmetry

Abstract: This paper examines cross-speaker and cross-dialectal variation in object symmetry effects in three Germanic languages, English, Norwegian and Swedish. We argue that object symmetry effects are not a unified phenomenon, but rather that the availability of locality obviating theme movement out of applicative structures has different sources in different constructions. Both case-based and locality-based explanations are needed to model the attested variation. An additional goal of the paper is to describe a new shape conservation effect in object shift contexts. Theme-goal orders in Norwegian object shift obtains if and only if the theme and goal invert vPinternally. This effect is predicted by Fox and Pesetsky’s (2005) Cyclic Linearization model.