SubMove: Towards A Unified Account of Scrambling and D-Linking

In this paper we suggest a parallelism between D-linked Wh-phrases and long-distance scrambled elements, and argue for a specific syntactic step operative in both constructions. The parallelism resides in similar behavior of the two constructions with respect to Superiority, discourse effects, semantic vacuity, islands, and clitic doubling. We suggest that this parallelism can provide insight into the nature of both scrambling and D-linking. Our proposal views D-linking and scrambling as not related to agreement-checking, but as taking place purely for discourse purposes expressed in the left periphery of the clause. The absence of agreement-checking in the C-domain enables us to understand the ‘peripheral’ properties of these two seemingly unrelated constructions. Both target a position inside the C-domain without operator behaviour. The justification for two distinct projections comes from the necessity to motivate movement on the one hand, and the unavailability of the usual phi-features/agreement relations connected to movement on the other.