Search

This paper investigates the various properties of the so-called Korean Left-Node Raising (LNR) construction, including its interpretation when a summative or symmetrical predicate occurs at the left periphery. While previous authors (Nakao in Proceedings of the 33rd annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania working papers in Linguistics, vol 16, pp 156–165, 2010; Chung in Stud Gener Gramm 20:549–576, 2010; Park and Lee in Stud Gener Gramm 19:505–528, 2009) focused on the syntactic connection between a coordinate phrase and its shared element at the left periphery, the exact compositional mechanism for the interpretation of the LNR construction has remained unaddressed in the literature. Building on the previous authors' claim regarding the parallels between the so-called 'respective' reading and the RNR construction in Korean and English (Park and Lee, 2009; Chaves in J Linguist 48(2):297–344, 2012; Kubota and Levine in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 34(3):911–973, 2016b), I compositionally analyze the interpretation of the Korean LNR construction in terms of a pairwise predication within the framework of Hybrid Type-Logical Categorial Grammar (Kubota in (In)flexibility of Constituency in Japanese in Multi-Modal Categorial Grammar with Structured Phonology, 2010; Kubota in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 32:1145–1204, 2014; Kubota in Linguist Inq 46:1–42, 2015; Kubota and Levine in OSU working papers in Linguistics, vol 60, Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University, pp 21–50, 2013; Kubota and Levine in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 34(1):107–156, 2016a; Kubota and Levine in Type-Logical Syntax, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2020). I argue that the proposed analysis straightforwardly captures not only the interpretation of the Korean LNR construction with summative/symmetrical predicates, but also the other properties such as occurrence of the plural marker -tul, case-matching patterns, long-distance dependency, and island insensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the syntax and semantics of the Japanese comparative construction that utilizes yori ‘than’, which functionally corresponds to the English more-comparative. While endorsing Beck et al.’s (J East Asian Linguist 13: 289–344, 2004) general claim that yori-comparatives cannot be analyzed on a par with the English comparative, the paper points out the problems associated with their analysis. Among the points the paper maintains in contrast with Beck et al. (J East Asian Linguist 13: 289–344, 2004) are (i) the denotation of the complement of yori is a degree, an individual, or a proposition, and (ii) yori-phrases take a gradable predicate as their argument; thus yori-phrases participate in the semantic composition of the matrix clause. In describing the difference between English and Japanese regarding the phenomena involving gradable predicates, the paper advocates Snyder et al.’s (Proceedings of the Thirteenth West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 1994) hypothesis that AdjPs in Japanese lack the specifier position that hosts a degree variable or constant (cf. Fukui, A theory of category projection and its applications. Doctoral dissertation, 1986), dispensing with Beck et al.’s Degree Abstraction Parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the projection of DP for indefinites initiated with yi 'one' and indefinites initiated with a classifier in Mandarin Chinese. First, a null numeral for 'one' is identified. Second, in yi-initial nominals, an indefinite article is also identified. Third, for classifier-initial indefinites, which have no overt numeral, a head movement of a classifier to D is argued for. Therefore, the head of DP in the language can be realized by either an indefinite article or a raised classifier. No argument is in the structure of a bare Classifier Phrase in the language. The paper supports the idea that numeralless classifier nominals exist because of the availability of null numerals. It also proposes a semantic LF reanalysis approach to the dependency of a classifier-initial nominal on a higher head element in the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a semantic analysis of comparison constructions in Japanese which is crucially different from the standard semantics of comparatives as developed for English and related languages. The interpretation of the Japanese comparison construction is determined to a larger extent by pragmatic strategies, as opposed to compositional semantics. The syntactically provided item of comparison (the constituent accompanyingyori) does not, in contrast to an Englishthan-clause, have a degree semantics; it ultimately contributes an individual. From this item the real comparison has to be inferred. We argue that Japanese does not have English-style degree operators and probably lacks abstraction over degree variables in the syntax altogether. The proposed analysis accounts for a number of empirical differences between Japanese and English. A more general outcome is that the semantics of comparison is subject to crosslinguistic variation. A parameter of language variation is suggested as the source of the differences we observe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a number of wh-in-situ languages, only causal wh-adverbs corresponding to 'why' exhibit island effects. The widely adopted explanation for this by Tsai (On economizing the theory of A-bar dependencies, 1994a, Nat Lang Linguist Theory 12(1):121-175, 1994b, in: Del Gobbo, Hoshi (eds) UCI working papers in linguistics, University of California, Irvine, 1999, J East Asian Linguist 17(2):83-115, 2008) is to draw a distinction between wh-nominals and wh-adverbs, where the former are unselectively bound by an operator in their scope position, while the latter must raise at LF, thereby inducing island violations. The result is a hybrid approach where wide scope of wh-words is derived by two distinct mechanisms. In this paper, I show that the island-sensitivity of wh-adverbs can be captured in a unified approach based on the observation that island sensitivity correlates with the adjunction height of the adverb. The resulting approach allows us to treat all in situ wh-phrases alike and leads to a unified theory of wh-in-situ which does not rely on LF movement. Furthermore, it will be shown how the analysis extends to other to donkey anaphora, wh-islands and A-not-A questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mandarin Chinese modal particle de has several interesting aspects to explore in formal semantics. Its interpretations include ability, disposition, and opportunity modalities. The three uses are all universal quantifiers. This paper focuses primarily on the ability use. This use has an agentivity requirement on the de subject. The semantics for ability de given in this paper makes reference to an enhanced Belief-Desire-Intention agent model and nicely captures the agentivity requirement. Ability de is incompatible with a past-denoting temporal phrase, except when the temporal phrase associates with certain focus sensitive elements or otherwise receives focus intonation. I argue that the general incompatibility of ability de with a past-denoting temporal phrase stems from the semantic requirement that the topic time of an ability de sentence should coincide with or follow the evaluation time of de, which is the utterance time by default. On the other hand, there are temporal shifters which can backward-shift the evaluation time to the topic time and as such, salvage otherwise ungrammatical ability de sentences that contain a past-denoting temporal phrase. The paper also discusses, albeit to a lesser extent, the disposition and opportunity uses of de. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to demonstrate that there exist real parasitic gaps (PG) in Japanese, despite the fact that pro is available rather freely in this language, hence making it hard to unveil the existence of real PGs. Taking up Takahashi's (J East Asian Linguistics 15: 1-35, ) work as the starting point, I argue that as far as NP gaps are concerned, what Takahashi calls an apparent PG is identified as either a real PG or an instance of pro, contrary to Takahashi's claim that it involves argument ellipsis. Real PG cases are found in typical PG configurations where sloppy readings of zibun 'self' are involved and where reconstruction effects of Condition A take place into PGs. I further argue that the argument-ellipsis strategy is unavailable in the apparent PG configuration due to its last resort nature. This property restricts the availability of argument ellipsis to the configuration in which the elliptic site is not c-commanded by its antecedent or it is not an NP in categorial status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates “gapless” bei passives in Mandarin Chinese and the way they are licensed. It is discovered that if the embedded predicate of a bei passive contains a weak NP, then the bei passive can be gapless. The proposal of this paper is that the weak NP introduces a variable, which can be bound by the operator Op at the embedded IP. Op need not move from an argument position in the embedded predicate of the bei passive; it can be merged directly to the embedded IP and bind the variable introduced by the weak NP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines five independent morphological processes in contemporary Japanese: renyookei reduplication, dvandva compounds, plural reduplication, mimetic reduplication, and zuuzya-go. Common to them is that the resulting form can be divided into two portions (e.g., base and reduplicant, or two members of a compound). Some of the morphological processes exhibit prosodic augmentation through vowel lengthening or segmental epenthesis, but others do not. Among the group of those phenomena with prosodic augmentation, the augmentation is shared by the two halves of a produced word in one case but not in others. Given these two parameters, the five morphological operations display a three-way gradient pattern: (i) both prosodic augmentation and prosodic sharing occur (renyookei reduplication), (ii) neither occurs (dvandva compounds and plural reduplication), and finally, (iii) prosodic augmentation occurs, but it is not shared by the two halves of a word (mimetic reduplication and zuuzya-go). This paper has both descriptive and theoretical goals. First, I demonstrate that prosody of the five morphological constructions exhibits such a gradient pattern through a careful description. Second, on the theoretical side, I offer a detailed comprehensive analysis of the prosodic gradation within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky (1993)). I argue that the notion of relativized faithfulness is essential, relativization referring to morphemes. This intra-linguistic comparative study thus lends support to Kurisu (2001b; 2005) who argues for the necessity of morpheme-specific faithfulness constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a systematic semantic account of the auxiliary verb pair a/e noh and a/e twu in Korean, which have been commonly assumed in the literature to express the perfect as synonyms, indicating the event described by their main clause complements has ended. Contrary to this common assumption, this paper argues that a noh is a dynamic event description, focusing on culmination, whereas a twu is static, triggering a presupposition about the causal event. This opposition corresponds to a difference between asserting the completion of an event and asserting a current state resulting from a past event that is presupposed to have already taken place. This paper provides empirical evidence supporting this claim: The two markers are distinguished when embedded in change of state predicates in sentences. In discourse, a noh describes a following/preceding episode, whereas a twu expresses an overlapping state. The semantic differences between the two have been represented formally using the logical tools of Discourse Representation Theory (Kamp and Reyle (1993)). In DRT, a noh moves the reference time (Rpt) forward, while a twu represents a state preserving the given Rpt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes an analysis of the word order characteristics of hentai kambun, the archaic Japanese writing style employed for recording Japanese in a way that outwardly resembles Chinese. As a method of writing Japanese, however, hentai kambun differs conspicuously from standard classical Chinese. Traditional accounts of these deviations tend to treat them as random mistakes in Chinese grammar due to influence from the writer's native Japanese. In contrast to this, the current paper views hentai kambun as a systematic representation of Japanese, rather than as an imitation of Chinese. Specifically, I propose that hentai kambun word order can receive a systematic account by assuming that Japanese has underlying head-initial word order, as proposed by Kayne (1994) and Whitman (2000), and that hentai kambun is a representation of this underlying order. This paper further investigates word order in ditransitive clauses and finds that the hentai kambun representation of dative-accusative and accusative-dative word order alternation provides evidence that what is traditionally referred to as "short scrambling" can in fact be analyzed as base-generation, as proposed in Miyagawa (1997). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epistemic use of the modal element yào in Mandarin Chinese comes with typologically rare properties. First and foremost, epistemic yào is restricted to occur in explicit strict comparative constructions and is disallowed in other degree constructions or non-degree constructions. No modals have been documented in prior literature of Chinese linguistics or general linguistics to manifest such a restrictive distribution. Second, epistemic yào manifests flexibility with respect to where it can appear in certain explicit strict comparative constructions, and it allows multiple occurrences in certain contexts. Third, epistemic yào carries a quantificational force stronger than that of existential modals, yet weaker than that of strong necessity modals. I propose that epistemic yào is an adjunct modifier for strict comparative morphemes, thus setting it apart from epistemic modals that take propositions as their arguments. The weak necessity quantificational force of epistemic yào is encoded in its semantics by making recourse to alternative modal bases, which represents an innovative approach to capturing weak necessity. Through investigating epistemic yào, I hope to bring to the forefront some hitherto unnoticed interesting properties in natural language modality and reveal new intra- and inter-linguistic variations in the distribution and interpretation of modal elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper replies to Kishimoto's (, J East Asian Linguist 17: 141-179) challenge to Miyagawa and Tsujioka (, J East Asian Linguist 13: 1-38) on the use of idioms as evidence for the base-generation hypothesis for Japanese ditransitives. I will point out problems with Kishimoto's proposal, then present alternative analyses of Kishimoto's data. I will argue that a closer look at a wider range of data including mixed marking cases of sa-nominalization in both idiomatic and non-idiomatic contexts lends further support for Miyagawa and Tsujioka (). In so doing, I will present data that support Watanabe (, J East Asian Linguist 19:61-74) to posit dual status of no. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that, contrary to preceding studies, a dialect spoken in a western region of Japan (Kansai dialect) allows not only nominative Case, as is widely known in literature, but also accusative Case, to convert into genitive Case in a prenominal clause. We will call this phenomenon Accusative-Genitive conversion. This phenomenon has been little known in theoretical literature because of its limited occurrence. As our detailed survey reveals, this less-known Case conversion is possible only if some conditions on the clause in which the conversion appears are satisfied. We also demonstrate that those necessary conditions for Accusative-Genitive conversion are, indeed, deduced by some independently supported hypotheses under the Agree/Phase theory. Thus, Accusative-Genitive conversion is within the realm of the Agree/Phase theory, and the characteristic conditions on its occurrence, in turn, lend support to the recent syntactic theory. Our theory of this phenomenon further predicts that, if our mechanism serves as an independent mechanism for genitive-Case valuation, it will also function as converting nominative Case into genitive Case. It will be shown that this is indeed the Case, which strongly supports the validity of our mechanism in Kansai Japanese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, one of the three instances of object preposing in Classical Chinese, the structure [NP1 NP2 shi / zhi V], is discussed in detail. According to their distributional differences, two structures—A [NP1 NP2 shi V] and B [NP1 NP2 zhi V]—are distinguished, and it is shown that both constructions, although sometimes identical in the surface structure, are subject to different syntactic and semantic constraints. This analysis challenges the hypothesis proposed by Peyraube (Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientales 26(1):3–20, 1997) that structure A [NP1 NP2 shi V] was gradually replaced by structure B [NP1 NP2 zhi V] during the Warring States period. In accordance with the syntactic constraints, different analyses are proposed for structures A and B in the course of the paper. Structure A, [NPS NPO shi V], is analyzed as a copula construction, a focalization (cleft) construction with the object not in preverbal position but to the right of the copula. Structure B, which is more heterogeneous than structure A, will be subdivided into different structures, only two of which will be retained as cases of a focalized and preposed object. The analysis reveals that object preposing in Classical Chinese is evidently a case of marked word order and cannot be assumed to be a vestige of an earlier SOV word order in Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widely attested cross-linguistically, the Negative WH (NWH)-construction involves the special use of wh-words (e.g., ‘where’, ‘what’, and ‘how’) to convey negation in certain specific contexts. The first half of this paper identifies the negative assertion as the primary meaning of the NWH construction, in addition to two conventional implicatures. In the second half, I argue that the grammatical features in NWHCs in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese strongly suggest that NWHCs should be analyzed as interrogative wh-questions. The quantification domain of NWH-words is the sets of propositions that pick out the conversational backgrounds of the sentence (Kratzer 1977; Portner 2009). The NWHC can be paraphrased as “What is the proposition q such that in view of q, p is true?” However, the interrogative question can only receive a negative rhetorical interpretation (i.e., a question without a true answer) because the conventional implicatures make it impossible for p to be true against any of the conversational backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses various puzzles concerning the phonology of Korean nominal inflection. In particular, I investigate a range of vowel hiatus resolution phenomena that differ between nouns and verbs, the overapplication of consonant cluster simplification and laryngeal feature neutralization in nominal stems, and certain asymmetries between derived nouns and nonderived nouns. After presenting some problems with previous approaches, I offer an analysis of the phonology of Korean nominal inflection in terms of base- output correspondence (BOC) theory, along the lines of Kager (1999). I argue that a variety of unexpected properties of noun phonology in Korean can receive a unified account under the BOC approach. I also show that noun-specific alignment and noun-specific faithfulness constraints are inadequate to capture noun phonology in Korean. My arguments support the view that the fact that nouns have a Base (isolation form) is the key factor in explaining the unique properties of noun phonology (see Kenstowicz’s (1996) base identity, in particular). It is shown, however, that the BOC approach overcomes shortcomings with the Base Identity approach by making a necessary distinction between minor and fatal divergence from the Base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends and applies to Korean, Iatridou’s analysis of past tense morphology in counterfactuals. The paper shows that just as in English, past tense morphology can be used to convey counterfactuality in Korean. While this fact accounts for many similarities between English and Korean counterfactuals, some differences between the two languages are also attested. The variation in form-meaning mapping between English and Korean counterfactuals is accounted for with the proposal that once the past tense is mapped onto the meaning component that conveys counterfactuality, the range of possible temporal interpretations for a counterfactual is literally determined by the LF of the relevant clause minus the past tense morpheme. If this LF has a present (or past) interpretation, the counterfactual will have a present (or past) interpretation. But if this LF is not interpretable, the counterfactual will not be interpretable either, resulting in ungrammaticality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that the indirect object of a ditransitive verb is always base-generated higher than the direct object. The word order alternation between the arguments in Japanese is the result of scrambling. I present new evidence for this approach from the Chain Condition effect in the sense of Rizzi (1986). I show that we observe the Chain Condition effect with the reflexive anaphor karezisin 'himself' when the word order is that of direct object-indirect object but not vice versa, which supports the movement analysis of the word order alteration. It has been observed that we do not obtain the Chain Condition effect with the reciprocal anaphor otagai 'each other'. I argue that this observation follows from the syntax and semantics of the reciprocal anaphor, and hence, does not constitute evidence against the movement analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that there are two types of ditransitive verbs in Japanese that associate their dative arguments with different structural positions: one projects the dative argument in a lower position than the accusative argument, whereas the other generates it in a higher position than the accusative argument. Evidence for this proposal comes from a difference observed in causative-inchoative alternations of ditransitive verbs. One type of verb promotes the accusative argument to the subject of the inchoative variant, which is discussed in Baker (1993, 1995). However, the other type advances the dative argument to the subject. It is also claimed that the dative arguments of the two types of verbs are distinguished by thematic role: one is goal, whereas the other is experiencer. Furthermore, this paper deals with issues concerning the structure of a passive construction, locality of A-movement, a nd the structural condition on bound variable reading of a pronoun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to give an explicit categorial syntax and formal semantics of various forms of floating quantifiers (FQs) in Korean. Non-case-marked FQs are assigned the category of NP modifier, i.e., NP\NP and this categorization, together with the combinatorial operation of functional composition, can handle the basic cases of subject/object asymmetry. An FQ in front of a transitive verb can compose with the verb, making itself related only to the object, but not to the subject. Case-marked FQs show no such asymmetry and they can be handled when they are assigned categories of VP or TV modifiers. Discourse factors are also relevant for FQs particularly because FQs with discourse markers, which signify some discourse-relevant prominence, enjoy the full freedom of word order as usual adverbs. Non-case-marked FQs can also be used as adverbials in a strong discourse context such as a "contrastive" one or nonconstituent coordination construction, but discourse effects are not as strong in Korean as in Japanese, as shown by still-awkward sentences with topicalized FQs. The absence of discourse restriction of contrastiveness with respect to dative NP hosts is another indication that Korean FQs are less affected by discourse factors than Japanese ones. Discourse factors are more grammaticalized in Korean than in Japanese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how information provided by tone sandhi provides potential insights into processes of movement. The paper focuses on the Taiwanese element kong (Mandarin shuo) 'say' which is grammaticalizing as a complementizer-type particle in an unexpected sentence-final position. Evidence from tone sandhi phenomena indicates that this results from an operation of IP-raising in which the clausal complement of kong is raised to its left after the application of tone sandhi rules. The active grammaticalization patterning offers both a clear insight into the creation of clause/sentence-final particles in SVO languages and also provides strong evidence for the idea of 'cyclic Spell-Out'. It is also argued that a derivational rather than a purely representational model of grammar is required to accommodate the patterns found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Ga/No Conversion in Japanese under the Move F theory of movement (Chomsky (1995)). Building on Miyagawa's (1993) analysis, the present paper argues that a genitive phrase raises out of a prenominal gapless clause in either overt or covert syntax. This claim is crucially based on Lasnik's (1999a) analysis of Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) constructions in English, according to which the ECM subject raises into a higher clause either overtly or covertly. It is also demonstrated that when a genitive subject originates in a relative clause, its raising is limited to covert syntax. This non-uniform behavior of the genitive subject is argued to follow from a particular implementation of Attract F. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been claimed in the literature that gapping is prohibited in Chinese. Johnson's (1994) theory of gapping receives important support from Chinese. However, Li (1988) and Paul (1996a, b, 1999) observe some prima facie evidence for gapping in Chinese. I argue that the examples illustrated by Li and Paul are not canonical gapping sentences that are created by V-to-T movement; instead, I propose that they are empty verb sentences. Furthermore, I argue that Chinese has some gapping sentences that result from ATB movement from V to v (LPD). This paper identifies two types of gapping in natural languages: gapping derived by V-to-T movement and gapping derived to V-to-v movement. Consequently, gapping should not be an 'all or nothing' phenomenon. The data from Chinese affirm Johnson's (1994) theory of gapping that gapping occurs in those languages only with verb movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japanese, the high vowels [i, m] become devoiced when they occur between voiceless segments, e.g., [kitai] 'expectation'. When a word contains a sequence of devoiceable syllables, however, not all high vowels are devoiced, and some are necessarily voiced: [ki∫itsu] 'temperament', [sekit∫itsu] 'room made of rock'. These words contain two consecutive devoiceable vowels, but only one of them, either the first or the second vowel in the sequence, is devoiced. Previous studies have claimed that it is impossible to predict which vowels are to be devoiced in consecutive devoiceable syllables. In this paper, I argue that devoicing sites are predictable when we understand the conflicting factors at work. Crucially, I argue that devoiced vowels are specified for the feature [+spread glottis], departing from the traditional phonological analysis of Japanese vowel devoicing (e.g., McCawley (1968)), which considers devoicing as an assimilation of the feature [-voice]. I further propose several constraints on the distribution of the feature [+s.g.]. I show that the locus of devoicing in consecutive devoicing environments is determined by the interaction of these constraints. The analysis is couched in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky (1993)). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I develop an argument for a pied-piping approach to the apparent absence of island effects in Japanese, along the lines of Nishigauchi (1986, 1990). The argument (first mentioned in Watanabe (1992b), crediting Mamoru Saito) has to do with the behavior of multiple wh-phrases in situ which are in an island; such wh-phrases must all take the same scope. On a covert pied-piping approach to island effects, the ban on distinct scopes follows straightforwardly; the island must be pied-piped to a scope position by the wh-phrases inside it, establishing the scope position for all of them. I show that the ban on distinct-scope readings does exhibit several properties of islands, including additional-wh effects. I then go on to investigate briefly the nature of pied-piping, developing a theory which accounts for the fact that wh- islands cannot be pied-piped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine a phenomenon in Korean involving fragment answers and consider its implications. Taking as a point of departure the generalization that case markers on ellipsis remnants in fragment answers can be omitted only in string-final position, I argue that in these situations, PF deletion extends into the ellipsis remnant, deleting parts of it, such as a case marker, a postposition or, sometimes, even the head noun, up to recoverability and under adjacency to a string of elements that are deleted in PF for independent reasons. This parasitic deletion process, which I term 'extra deletion,' sheds light on the nature of PF deletion, which I argue operates on strings of elements, similarly to the way that syntactic operations target constituents. The crucial idea is that, although it is mostly syntax that determines what is to be deleted (and, thus, elements that undergo ellipsis are usually syntactic constituents), PF deletion also has its own guidelines when it applies-namely that elements that are elided should form an unbroken, continuous string. What is interesting is that in contexts of extra deletion, the string of deleted elements is extended beyond what is initially marked for deletion by syntax, an important consequence of which is that PF deletion can ignore syntactic constituents. Furthermore, I make the novel observation that there exists a significant parallelism between fragment answers and right node raising, which has not been noted in the literature due to the sheer differences in their structure, surface form, and use. I argue that postulating extra deletion allows us to capture the parallelism straightforwardly, which in turn provides an additional argument for the PF deletion analysis of the latter construction, for which there have been several alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the formation of yes/no (Y/N) questionsin colloquial Singapore Teochew (ST), a variety of Teochew(Chaozhou) which has borrowed a significant number of lexicalitems from Malay. The varieties of Y/N questions which we shalldescribe are A-Not-A questions, questions employing the questionparticle ka and postposed negative auxiliary (PNA) questions. The three types of Y/N questions can be reduced to two types,A-Not-A questions and ka questions. These two types of questionsdiffer markedly in their properties. Ka questions showdistributional limitations which indicate that they are derivedsimilarly to adverbial WH questions, suggesting a movementanalysis like that proposed by Huang (1982 and 1991) for Mandarinand Taiwanese A-Not-A questions. ST A-Not-A questions, however,appear not to be derived by movement. Rather, we followMcCawley's suggestion that A-Not-A questions represent the conventionalization and grammaticization of what earlier were notY/N questions, but rather alternative or disjunctive questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sika-nai is a Japanese word for only. This paper proposes that sika-nai should be analyzed along the line of Watanabe (1991,1992), who claims that Japanese has invisible syntacticwh-movement. We propose that sika has an invisible operator. Naiheads its own projection, NegP. The invisible operator moves toNegP-Spec in syntax. As evidence for this analysis, it will bedemonstrated that sika-nai shows effects of the SubjacencyCondition, the Proper Binding Condition, and the Linear CrossingConstraint. These principles interact with scrambling andwh-movement in such a way as to further confirm our analysis. Weadvance an argument against Chomsky's (1992) proposal that thereis no S-Structure condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an exception to Krifka's (in: Bartsch, Benthem, Emde Boas,Semantics and contextual expression, CSLI Publications, Stanford, 1989) famous generalization that a quantized incremental theme always induces an event-homomorphic completive reading, Singh (Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 17(1): 469–479, 1991, Journal of East Asian Linguistics 3(2): 107–146, 1998) observes that in Hindi only quantized mass noun phrases entail a completive reading, but unexpectedly quantized count noun phrases can give rise to an incompletive reading. She proposes that count nouns can introduce a partial-affectedness thematic relation, whereas mass nouns introduce a total-affectedness thematic relation. With new data in Mandarin, instead of the count/mass distinction, I argue that referentiality of the direct object is a crucial factor, because incompletive readings are only felicitous with direct objects interpreted referentially for consumption verbs in Mandarin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mandarin Chinese has the special placeholder use of wh-words to substitute phrases, words or syllables that the speaker cannot utter for some pragmatic reason(s). Wh-placeholders are rather common in spoken Mandarin. Typical contexts include failure to recall somebody's name and avoidance of taboo words. The speaker generally presupposes that the intended meaning is salient enough for the hearer(s) to infer from the context. Morphologically, a wh-placeholder usually consists of na-ge (demonstrative-classifier) and a wh-word. Syntactically, a wh-placeholder can correspond to elements of different categories and positions that are not possible with interrogative, indefinite and universally quantified wh-words, e.g. verbs, adjectives, syllables, etc. This paper proposes that a wh-placeholder is a metalinguistic demonstrative expression that refers to the intended linguistic expression, as opposed to a regular demonstrative that refers to a real world object. It can flexibly shift to the required semantic type via a silent type-shifting function, resulting in the flexibility of syntactic distribution. The demonstrative na-ge is a definite operator that provides the quantification force for the wh-word, which gives rise to the definite reference to linguistic objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an analysis of the Taiwanese DP justified by Taiwanese-Spanish code-switching data from highly competent bilingual speakers from a Taiwanese-Spanish community in Buenos Aires. In line with other research, we claim that Taiwanese has a NumP and an independent DP which cannot be filled by null elements. Further, we propose a new analysis for pre-classifier (Cl) adjectives (the tua 'big' and se 'small' type), which we show to be functional elements of what we call the Size Phrase. We also claim that Taiwanese has two classifier positions, the upper of which optionally appears for our speakers in constructions involving a Size element. In addition to our claims on the Taiwanese DP, our analysis provides evidence against claims that phrase structure is universal (Cinque, Adverbs and functional heads: a cross-linguistics perspective, ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines multiple-classifier constructions in Chinese, in which two classifiers are stacked in one nominal position. The following three properties are found in these constructions: (i) strict linear ordering between different types of classifiers, (ii) definiteness/specificity of the lower DP, and (iii) obligatory non-distributive readings. The properties of multiple-classifier constructions allow us to study the syntax and semantics of nominal expressions in Chinese from a novel point of view. We argue that, syntactically, and against the bare NP analysis in Chierchia (in: Rothstein S (ed) Events and grammar, Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 53-103, , Nat Lang Semant 6:339-405, ) and the Classifier Phrase analysis in Cheng and Sybesma (Linguist Inq 30:509-542, ; in: Cinque G, Kayne R (ed) The Oxford handbook of comparative syntax, Oxford University Press, pp 259-292, ), from the properties of multiple-classifier constructions, a universal DP analysis is favored (as in Li, Linguist Inq 29: 693-702, ). Incorporating the theories in Zamparelli (in: Alexiadou A, Wilder C (eds) Linguistics today: possessors, predicates and movement in the determiner phrase, vol 22, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp 259-301, ) and Dayal (Linguist Philos 27:393-450, ), we demonstrate that a generalized Chierchian approach (without his semantic parameter) best captures the syntax-semantics mappings within nominal expressions in Chinese. From a compositional semantic point of view, we argue that multiple-classifier constructions should be treated as an instance of partitive construction with an empty partitive head. The hypothesis of an empty partitive head not only accounts for the properties of the multiple-classifier constructions, but it also offers explanations for the asymmetry of partitive readings in Chinese relative clauses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes Taiwanese A-CL sequences as compound adjectives by treating the classifier inside such sequences as a dimension provider and the adjective as involving an ordering function. Combined with the assumption that classifiers occurring as the CL of A-CL compound adjectives should be divided into single-dimension denoting and multi-dimension denoting elements, the analysis provides a rationale for why the adjectives permitted in A-CL compound adjectives have the interesting and otherwise perplexing property of being so limited in number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates ellipsis within nominals in Japanese with reference to a wider range of data than that considered by Saito et al. (JEAL 17: 247– 271, 2008). It is shown that the interaction with ellipsis reveals two types of no, a genitive case particle and a linking element inserted morphologically. To accommodate the additional ellipsis data, the analysis that treats the numeral-classifier sequence as an adjunct to NP must be rejected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the Korean past tense marker -ess with another past form -essess (double past), the distinction between which has been controversial among Korean linguists, and provides a discourse-based semantic analysis of them. It is argued that -ess and -essess are logically distinguished in terms of dynamic versus stative information in dynamic semantics, which is more or less in line with the distinction between the English past and the past perfect. The simple past in English and the Korean -ess at least have the potential to give dynamic information, updating the given context with a new event and shifting the current temporal perspective. The English past perfect and the Korean - -essess, on the other hand, provide stative, background information, preserving the given context. However, while the English past perfect is ambiguous between preterit and aspectual inter-pretations, Korean -essess has only the preterit interpretation, triggering a flashback effect in narratives. Their semantic properties and differences are represented in Discourse Representation Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the distribution of adverbs in A-not-A questions bears on the base-position of an abstract morpheme Q and is subject to the same general locality condition on variable binding. It claims that adverbs that have semantic relations with an element in the clause or the clause itself mostly allow inference and interact syntactically with the A-not-A operator, whereas those having no such relations do not. It shows that the lack of syntactic interaction between temporal and locative adverbs on the one hand and the A-not-A operator on the other follows directly from their being related to the world and time coordinates of the formal interpretive model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well-known that hierarchies of person, animacy, and definiteness have effects on case marking systems in various languages, where certain classes of subjects and objects are marked, but not others. This paper presents evidence of frequency effects of those hierarchies on case ellipsis in Korean. The two major aims of this paper are the following. First of all, the significance of variable case ellipsis patterns of Korean, as found in the CallFriend Korean corpus (LDC (1996)), will be demonstrated when looked at from a functional-typological perspective: variation in case marking between style levels within a single language reflects variation across languages. In a second step, the findings from a comparative study of Korean and other languages are integrated into a coherent theoretical framework – stochastic Optimality Theory (OT) (Boersma (1998), Boersma and Hayes (2001)). It is shown that quantitative patterning found in Korean case ellipsis can be analyzed within the stochastic OT framework in a way analogous to an account of categorical differential case marking effects proposed by Aissen (2003). In this analysis, categorical differential case marking found in various languages is viewed as conventionalization of the same universal pragmatic tendency to mark disharmonic elements, which is also present in the variable case-marking systems of languages like Japanese and Korean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at the acquisition of obligatory overt arguments in L2 English by adult L1 Chinese speakers and sets out to explain the divergence between non-native speakers and native speakers in relation parameter-resetting in SLA within the framework of Principles and Parameters. In particular, we test a proposal made by Yuan [1997, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 2, 16–32] which argues for initial full transfer of the Chinese functional category features into L2 English. Chinese speakers then readjust the features of Infl as a result of contact with English, and this requires their grammars to have obligatory subjects. However, they continue to allow null objects in their English simply because positive evidence is not available to eliminate them. The implication of Yuan’s proposal is that features of functional categories in the L2 which differ from those in the L1 are in principle resettable, which argues against the claim made by Tsimpli and Roussou [1991, UCL Workings Papers in Linquistics 3, 149–170], and Smith and Tsimpli [1995, The Mind of Savant: Language Learning and Modulority, Blackwell, Oxford.] that parameter values associated with functional categories are inaccessible to L2 learners after the critical period. The results do not lend support to Yuan’s claim that the recognition of the features of Infl in English causes Chinese speakers to unlearn null subjects while lack of positive evidence in relation to functional category features allows them to continue accepting null objects. Rather, they support the view of Tsimpli and Roussou and Smith and Tsimpli that older learners do not reset their parameters. It could be argued that learners are more successful in disallowing null matrix subjects than null arguments in other positions because they make a small adjustment to the use of topic chains while the parameter settings of Chinese are maintained. This adjustment is that one topic at the head of every sentence must be overt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of this paper is distributive quantification in Mandarin Chinese and how it is constrained. The starting point is the two adverbial expressions, dou and quan, both of which are often translated as ‘all’. Despite their syntactic and semantic similarities, closer examinations reveal that the occurrence of quan is more restricted than that of dou. While we concur with the view that dou can function as a distributive operator, we argue that quan itself is neither distributive nor quantificational. Its sole semantic function is to restrict the domain of distributive quantification. The incompatibility of quan in various environments is attributed to this single reason: quan is merely a domain regulator for distributivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I present an argument from Mandarin Chinese for the claim that the double object construction involves more structure than the dative construction (Marantz (1993), Bruening (2001), Miyagawa and Tsujioka (2004)). The evidence involves a contrast between the double object and the dative constructions in the distribution of the distributive quantifier GE ‘each’. I propose that GE may adjoin to a vP or a VP (cf. Lin (1998), Kung (1993)), and the distribution of GE may be used to diagnose the presence of a vP or a VP layer. The proposed analysis provides evidence for the existence of the verb–preposition distinction in Mandarin Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general consensus of Japanese historical linguists is that the orthography in Kojiki (712) preserves more phonemic distinctions than Nihon shoki (720) – specifically the spelling of two varieties (mwo and mo) of what later merged to become mo – but the chronological proximity of these two works makes this consensus difficult to accept. This paper examines the phonetic orthography in Nihon shoki, and parts of Man'yôshû, to demonstrate that a careful screening of these data reveals vestiges of the orthographic tradition preserved in Kojiki in other records as well. The beginnings of the merger of mwo and mo are explored, and a tentative dating for this spelling change is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Old Japanese modal suffix beshi deserves special attention for at least two reasons. Firstly, it is one of only a few modal markers throughout Japanese language history that have both deontic and epistemic meaning, which is very common in English and other Indo- European languages. Secondly, it is said to be extremely polysemous. There might be no other modal suffix in the history of the Japanese language that has been associated with such a range and variety of meanings. There are also concrete examples of beshi that are given divergent interpretations in grammatical analysis and Modern Japanese translations. The primary goal of this paper is to provide a principled explanation both for the different "meanings" of beshi and for divergent interpretations that are due to indeterminacy. It is argued that Old Japanese beshi from a synchronic point of view basically has only a deontic and an epistemic sense, and other "meanings" can be explained either in terms of vagueness or in terms of implicature in specific contexts. Conditions are explained under which indeterminacy between the deontic and the epistemic sense arises and compared with the conditions for indeterminacy and deontic-epistemic polysemy to those observed in the history of modals in English and German. Furthermore an account of the diachronic layering behind the synchronic meaning range of beshi in Old Japanese is given. It is claimed that the development of the meanings of beshi does not strictly adhere to the "deontic-to- epistemic" pattern frequently found on Indo-European languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the subject/object drop pattern found in child Korean and makes a cross-linguistic comparison among seven languages. Regardless of their target languages, children acquiring any language are found to start producing fewer overt subjects than adult speakers. But their production of overt subjects increases with age and quickly reaches the adult rate. Since even children acquiring null-subject languages produce overt subjects at the early stages of acquisition less often than adults, there seem to be some nonsyntactic factors which are at least partly responsible across languages for the initial nonproduction of overt subjects. Moreover, the actual subject-drop rate in a language cannot be predicted on the basis of how the language identifies null subjects. For example, we cannot predict that a "rich-agreement" language drops subjects more often than a "discourse-oriented" language or the other way around. Children instead seem to show sensitivity to actual frequencies of subject drop in their target languages. Korean data also confirm the universal tendency of more frequent subject than object drop. The subject/object drop pattern in child Korean and a cross-linguistic comparison among seven languages support performance-limitation accounts of the subject drop phenomenon in early English. The findings are most consistent with Valian's observation that early grammars show a high degree of sensitivity to characteristics of and frequency distributions in input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is standard view in Japanese historical linguistics that voicing of obstruents in Old through Early Middle Japanese (c. 700–1200) was contrastive although largely limited to intervocalic position. However, Wenck (1959), Hayata (1977), and Takayama (1993) question this view by raising the possibility that early Japanese had only non- contrastive voicing of intervocalic obstruents. On this account, "voiced" and "voiceless" obstruents in intervocalic position were distinguished purely on the basis of prenasalization rather than voicing in early Japanese; the well-known weakening process of intervocalic /p/, which is commonly summarized as *p > *Φ > w, is recast as *p > *b > *β > w. This dissenting view is in fact more consistent with various sound change phenomena from Middle to Modern Japanese. This paper presents a novel piece of evidence from the sound-symbolic stratum which supports the view of Wenck, Hayata, and Takayama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the syllable has internal structure or not is by no means a settled matter in generative phonology. This paper argues that the syllable has rich internal structure that may vary from language to language. Crucial evidence comes from phonological processes, such as partial reduplication, that target sub-strings of the syllable. In the case of Fuzhou, careful analysis of sub-syllabic processes provides a convincing argument for a highly articulated structure of the syllable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the interaction ofwh-phrases and negation in Korean. We observe that a wh-phrasemust not be c-commanded by negative polarity item. This isrelated to the observation that in German, a wh-phrase must notbe c-commanded by negation or a negative quantifier. We suggestthat both languages are sensitive to a restriction that prohibitsLF movement across negation, the Minimal Negative StructureConstraint MNSC, proposed in Beck (1996). Since a negativepolarity item must always be in the scope of negation, the MNSCcovers the Korean data as well as the German facts. Our analysishas several interesting implications for LF structures in Korean.One is that negation cannot be interpreted in its S-structureposition. Another concerns the semantic effect of scrambling.Contra Saito (1989, 1992), we argue that scrambling serves toidentify intended relative scope and is thus by no means vacuous.We propose that short scrambling is never reconstructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that the 'true empty category' in Mandarin NP ellipsis is not necessarily a semantically empty structure-less position; instead it could have a complex structure, containing a referential head. Such a referential head is, however, missing in Cantonese. The dialectal variation between Mandarin and Cantonese is attributed to the noun movement parameter, which has been independently motivated in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nishimura (M.A. thesis, ) first pointed out that in Japanese loan words, voiced geminates devoice optionally when they co-occur with another voiced obstruent, i.e., when they violate OCP(voice) (e.g., /baggu/ → [bakku] 'bag'). This devoicing of geminates has been used to make several theoretical claims in the recent phonological literature. However, these claims have so far largely been based on intuition-based data provided by Nishimura (M.A. thesis, ) and Kawahara (Language 82(3):536-574, ). Kawahara (Nat Lang Linguist Theory, ) addressed this problem by conducting a rating study. The first aim of this study, building on Kawahara (Nat Lang Linguist Theory, ), is to further support the empirical foundation of these theoretical claims by way of a large-scale rating study. The current study shows that (i) the OCP and geminacy each affect naturalness rating of devoicing, and (ii) there is nevertheless something special about the combination of the OCP and geminacy. The second aim is to test an assumption behind the recent literature on this phenomenon. The assumption is that this devoicing pattern is monolithic-i.e., all voiced geminates uniformly undergo devoicing in a certain phonological environment. The current experiment shows that this assumption is too simplistic. In particular it shows (i) speakers rate the devoicing of affricates as natural as that of stops, (ii) speakers find devoicing of items that merge with other lexical items less natural, (iii) speakers rate devoicing as more natural when there are multiple triggers, (iv) speakers find devoicing of [dd] more natural than that of [gg], and (v) speakers find devoicing of more frequent items more natural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]