Scrambling Verb-Final Languages and the Underlying Order of Objects in Ditransitive Constructions

In this paper I provide evidence from depictive stranding to show that German and Turkish, scrambling verb-final languages which have been assumed to be an exception to the crosslinguistic generalization of IO>DO base order in double object constructions, in fact support the generalization. Following Georgala's et al. (2008) analysis of applicative constructions, which predicts that indirect objects (IOs) originate higher than direct objects (DOs), I argue that German and Turkish have two types of applied arguments (thematic and raising) with different underlying but the same surface position, namely [Spec, ApplP]. By showing that IO>DO is the base order of Turkish double object constructions, I also contribute to the discussion of the nature of scrambling in Turkish. In particular I corroborate Öztürk's (2005) view that scrambling in Turkish can be treated as either A-bar or A-movement.