Prosody-Driven Scrambling in Italian

Italian displays a scrambling pattern where the structure of the constituent following a postverbal focus affects which of its components can scramble before the focus . The actual governing factor is the prosodic phrasing projected by the postfocal constituent. Scrambling is only possible when it improves the stress alignment with the right boundary of the intonational phrase wrapping the sentence. This study provides further evidence that the classic T-model where syntax feeds prosody needs to be replaced by a new model where prosody and syntax interact. As this study shows, OT provides a possible model for such interaction that entirely dispenses with interface-related stipulations.