Lambda Abstraction and Scrambling = Lambda Abstraction and Scrambling

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal. 19(1). 1-22. This paper compares two versions of lambda abstraction proposed by Heim and Kratzer (1998) and Bittner (1994). Even though the former is considered to be more standard than the latter in the literature, many data have proven that the latter is more useful than the former. This paper claims that the latter should be adopted in the grammar in that Bittner`s rule not only helps us to treat scrambling efficiently but also fundamentally explains why it occurs and when it can and cannot occur. The fact that arguments can be arranged in any order at syntax is directly motivated by the semantic rule that allows any variable with an index to be lambda-abstracted freely. Since Bittner`s rule is empirically attested by one of the prevalent linguistic phenomena called scrambling, the rather liberated power of Bittner`s rule that might give rise to some concerns can be justified. Bittner`s rule removes unnecessary complications in the grammar while placing unavoidable complexity in the right place.