This thesis examines the role of prosody and semantics in word order variations in Chinese. In particular, I address the controversial issue of whether overt object scrambling is available in Chinese. I argue that overt object scrambling exists in Chinese on the basis of (i) scope evidence, and (ii) the similarities between object scrambling in Chinese and object scrambling in Dutch and German. I show that object scrambling in Chinese exhibits prosodic, semantic and discourse information structure effects, similar to object scrambling in Dutch and German (Neeleman and Reinhart, to appear). There is evidence from the distribution of the object(s) in serial verb constructions and double complement constructions that the scrambled object occupies a position within the VP. This study places Chinese among languages such as Dutch and German which allow object scrambling and by doing so, enriches the data base for determining why scrambling occurs.