The structure and processing of rightward scrambling in Hindi-Urdu

Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI2807) Jan 2026- Dec 2028

One of the deepest drivers of research in theoretical linguistics is the search for linguistic universals, that is, the search for properties all languages share in common despite their superficial differences. Abels & Neeleman (under review) hypothesise that rightward movement of obligatory material is more difficult to parse than rightward movement of optional material and also more difficult to parse than leftward movement of optional or obligatory material. They suggest that this offers an explanation for the near total absence of rightward shifts of the head word, an obligatory element within its phrase, in the neutral word order patterns across languages. Leftward shifts of the head by contrast are readily attested. The most famous example of this asymmetry is Cinque's (2005) implementation of Greenberg's (1963:87) word order universal 20, which says: "When any or all of the items (demonstrative, numeral, and descriptive adjective) precede the noun, they are always found in that order. If they follow, the order is either the same or its exact opposite."

In this context, the current project investigates properties of a particular word order alternation in Hindi-Urdu: rightward scrambling. Hindi-Urdu generally shows subject-object-verb-auxiliary word order, but both subjects and objects as well as a variety of adjuncts can also optionally follow verb and auxiliary under certain circumstances.

The project has a theoretical and a psycholinguistic sub-project. On the theoretical side, we ask exactly which instances of rightward scrambling in Hindi-Urdu involve the kind of rightward shift that would make them fall under the scope of Abels & Neeleman's proposal. On the psycholinguistic side, we ask whether those instances of rightward scrambling give rise to the expected parsing difficulties when obligatory material is shifted rightward.

More specifically, the theoretical sub-project investigates the properties of clauses with rightward scrambling in Hindi-Urdu and will develop an analysis overcoming the limitations of our current theoretical understanding of the phenomenon. Notably, current theoretical models are based almost exclusively on rightward scrambling of subjects and objects but fail to offer satisfactory approaches to rightward scrambled adjuncts and other material.

The psycholinguistic sub-project aims to test whether the ideas about the real-time processing of rightward shifted word orders carry over to rightward scrambling in Hindi-Urdu. This research would break ground in that currently the only published data on the effect of obligatoriness in rightward movement comes from English. The project breaks ground also in the sense that it will present the first psycholinguistic studies on Hindi-Urdu using the grammatical maze methodology. We hope to show in a validation experiment that the maze method, which has a granularity comparable to eye tracking but is much easier and cheaper to run, works for Hindi-Urdu. Given the geographic and socioeconomic context in which Hindi-Urdu predominantly exists, the introduction of such a cost-effective method will enable regional institutions to investigate psycholinguistic phenomena on a much larger scale. We will then tackle the real-time processing of rightward scrambling in Hind-Urdu in the main experiment.

Title: Workshop on Rightward Movement

Dates: 14-15 July 2026

Venue: Chandler House (room TBC)

Organisers: Klaus Abels, Ad Neeleman, Sakshi Bhatia, Sana Kidwai

This workshop is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council under the project 'The Structure and Processing of Rightward Scrambling in Hindi-Urdu’ (UKRI2807).

Rightward Movement is a two-day inaugural workshop of the AHRC funded project 'The Structure and Processing of Rightward Scrambling in Hindi-Urdu.’ The workshop will bring together researchers working on the syntax of (apparent) rightward movement in any language. It aims to advance our understanding of left-right asymmetries and word order variation by exploring theoretical and empirical perspectives on rightward movement. The workshop will feature a mix of presentations by members of the project and its board as well as talks selected via abstract submission.

Left-right asymmetries are pervasive in language. Rightward movement specifically has long been of interest in investigating such asymmetries. Many scholars have argued that rightward movement is either heavily restricted or completely banned (Ross, 1967; Kayne, 1994). Such ideas have led to insights into important typological patterns (see Cinque, 2003, 2009; Steddy and Samek Lodovici, 2011; Abels and Neeleman, 2012, etc.). Whether such constraints arise directly from the theory of syntax (Kayne, 1994) or from syntax external considerations (Medeiros, 2018, Abels and Neeleman, to appear) is an open question. Empirically, constituents can be found to the right of their canonical positions in a wide range of constructions, including heavy NP shift, extraposition, right dislocation and right node raising, which often also leads to special prosodic and/or information structure effects (see papers in Beerman, LeBlanc, and van Riemsdijk 1997; Webelhuth, Sailer and Walker, 2013). Such phenomena have received a variety of analyses, some allowing for restricted rightward movement, and others maintaining the ban on rightward movement and deriving surface word orders through mechanisms like remnant movement, base-generation plus linearisation, PF reordering, and/or ellipsis. In this workshop, we invite research on syntactic constructions with (apparent) rightward movement. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, theoretical analyses of rightward movement, the structure and function of the right periphery, and interface effects of rightward displacement, in particular those related to scope, binding, prosody and information structure. We particularly welcome presentations developing and sharpening diagnostic tools to tease apart rightward movement from other kinds of extraposition.

We invite anonymised abstract submissions for oral presentations in a relaxed format encouraging discussion (roughly 30min talk + 15min discussion). Abstracts should be no longer than one page of text (A4, 1inch margins, 11pt), and a second page containing examples, figures, tables, and references. Authors may submit up to two abstracts – they may be the first author of only one submission and can be co-author/presenter on the second. Abstracts should be submitted at https://easyabs.linguistlist.org/conference/RightMove2026/. Please contact sana.kidwai.15@ucl.ac.uk for any queries.

References:
• Abels, Klaus and Ad Neeleman (to appear). “Linear Asymmetries and Incremental Parsing”. In: Language.
• Beerman, Dorothee, David LeBlanc, and Henk van Riemsdijk, eds. (1997). Rightward Movement. Vol. 17. Linguistik Aktuell. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Cinque, Guglielmo (2005). “Deriving Greenberg’s Universal 20 and its Exceptions”. In: Linguistic Inquiry 36.3, pp. 315–332.
• Cinque, Guglielmo (2009). “The fundamental left-right asymmetry of natural languages”. In: Universals of Language Today. Ed. by Sergio Scalise, Elisabetta Magni, and Antonietta Bisetto. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 165–184.
• Kayne, R. (1994). The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Medeiros, David P (2018). “ULTRA: Universal Grammar as a Universal Parser”. In: Frontiers in Psychology 9, p. 155. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00155. url: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00155.
• Ross, J. R. (1967). Constraints on Variables in Syntax. PhD dissertation. MIT.
• Steddy, Sam and Vieri Samek-Lodovici (2011). “On the Ungrammaticality of Remnant Movement in the Derivation of Greenberg’s Universal 20”. In: Linguistic Inquiry 42.3, pp. 445–469.
• Webelhuth, G., Sailer, M., and Walker, H. (Eds.). (2013). Rightward movement in a comparative perspective. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Principal Investigator: Prof Klaus Abels - k.abels@ucl.ac.uk

Co-Investigator (UK): Prof Ad Neeleman - Professor of Linguistics

Co-Investigator (International): Assistant Prof Sakshi Bhatia (University of Delhi)

Postdoctoral Research Associate: Dr Sana Kidwai  - sana.kidwai.15@ucl.ac.uk

Address: Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London, UIK, WC1N 1PF