1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Language and Linguistics
  4. Volume 18, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 18, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1606-822X
  • E-ISSN: 2309-5067
PDF

Abstract

Abstract

Japanese wh-expressions appear in various kinds of operator-variable structures, including wh-questions and sentences with universal and existential quantification. The nature of the operator-variable relation is determined by an associated particle, such as the question marker or the universal particle . Given this, it has been widely assumed since Kuroda (1965) that the wh-expressions are to be interpreted as variables bound by those quantificational particles. This paper argues against this prevailing view by proposing that these wh-expressions are operators with unspecified quantificational force. Building on an insight by Nishigauchi (1990), I argue that they must covertly move to positions that allow them to probe particles and to acquire specific quantificational forces from them. I demonstrate that this analysis captures the main properties of Japanese wh-expressions as well as the differences between them and their Chinese counterparts. Huang (1982) proposed a covert movement analysis for argument wh-phrases in Chinese, which was extended to Japanese, for example, in Lasnik & Saito (1984) and Richards (2001). But Tsai (1999) has convincingly shown that they are subject to unselective binding and are interpreted in situ as variables. If the analysis for Japanese in this paper is correct, it shows that Huang’s approach can be – and should be – maintained for wh-phrases in Japanese with some refinements.

© John Benjamins
Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lali.18.1.01sai
2017-01-12
2024-12-08

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/lali.18.1.01sai
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/lali.18.1.01sai.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/lali.18.1.01sai&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Aoun, Joseph , & Yen-Hui Audrey Li
    1993 On some differences between Chinese and Japanese wh-elements. Linguistic Inquiry24.2:365–372.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bošković, Željko
    2007 On the locality and motivation of move and agree: an even more minimal theory. Linguistic Inquiry38.4:589–644. doi:  10.1162/ling.2007.38.4.589
     https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2007.38.4.589 [Google Scholar]
  3. Carlson, Gregory Norman
    1977 Reference to Kinds in English. Amherst: University of Massachusetts at Amherst dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Chomsky, Noam
    1993 A minimalist program for linguistic theory. The View from Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger, ed. by Kenneth Hale & Samuel Jay Keyser , 1–52. Cambridge: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. 2000 Minimalist inquiries: the framework. Step by Step: Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, ed. by Roger Martin , David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka , 89–155. Cambridge: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. 2013 Problems of projection. Lingua1301:33–49. doi:  10.1016/j.lingua.2012.12.003
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.12.003 [Google Scholar]
  7. Diesing, Molly
    1992 Indefinites. Cambridge: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Hagstrom, Paul Alan
    1998 Decomposing Questions. Cambridge: MIT dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Heim, Irene Roswitha
    1982 The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. Amherst: University of Massachusetts at Amherst dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Huang, C.-T. James
    1982 Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar. Cambridge: MIT dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Kuno, Susumu
    1973 The Structure of the Japanese Language. Cambridge: MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Kuroda, S.-Y.
    1965 Generative Grammatical Studies in the Japanese Language. Cambridge: MIT dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Lasnik, Howard , & Mamoru Saito
    1984 On the nature of proper government. Linguistic Inquiry15.2:235–289.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Maki, Hideki
    1995 The Syntax of Particles. Storrs: University of Connecticut dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Murasugi, Keiko
    1991 Noun Phrases in Japanese: A Study in Syntax, Learnability, and Acquisition. Storrs: University of Connecticut dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Nishigauchi, Taisuke
    1990 Quantification in the Theory of Grammar. Dordrecht: Kluwer. doi:  10.1007/978‑94‑009‑1972‑3
     https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1972-3 [Google Scholar]
  17. 1991 Construing wh . Logical Structure and Linguistic Structure: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives, ed. by C.-T. James Huang & Robert May , 197–231. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Richards, Norvin
    2001 Movement in Language: Interactions and Architectures. New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Rizzi, Luigi
    2010 On some properties of criterial freezing. The Complementizer Phase: Subjects and Operators, ed. by E. Phoevos Panagiotidis , 17–32. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:  10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584352.003.0002
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584352.003.0002 [Google Scholar]
  20. Saito, Mamoru
    2014 Case and labeling in a language without φ-feature agreement. On Peripheries: Exploring Clause Initial and Clause Final Positions, ed. by Anna Cardinaletti , Guglielmo Cinque & Yoshio Endo , 269–297. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Shimoyama, Junko
    2001 Wh-constructions in Japanese. Amherst: University of Massachusetts at Amherst dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. 2008 Indeterminate pronouns. The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Linguistics, ed. by Shigeru Miyagawa & Mamoru Saito , 372–393. New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Takahashi, Daiko
    2002 Determiner raising and scope shift. Linguistic Inquiry33.4:575–615. doi:  10.1162/002438902762731772
     https://doi.org/10.1162/002438902762731772 [Google Scholar]
  24. Takita, Kensuke , & Barry Chung-Yu Yang
    2014 On multiple wh-questions with ‘why’ in Japanese and Chinese. Japanese Syntax in Comparative Perspective, ed. by Mamoru Saito , 206–227. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:  10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945207.003.0008
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945207.003.0008 [Google Scholar]
  25. Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan
    1999 On lexical courtesy. Journal of East Asian Linguistics8.1:39–73. doi:  10.1023/A:1008354312243
     https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008354312243 [Google Scholar]
  26. Watanabe, Akira
    1992 Subjacency and S-structure movement of wh-in-situ. Journal of East Asian Linguistics1.3:255–291. doi:  10.1007/BF00130554
     https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00130554 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/lali.18.1.01sai
Loading
Japanese wh-phrases as operators with unspecified quantificational force
Language and Linguistics 18, 1 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.18.1.01sai
/content/journals/10.1075/lali.18.1.01sai
/content/journals/10.1075/lali.18.1.01sai
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): covert wh-movement; criterial freezing; feature valuation; unselective binding; wh-in-situ

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error