Showing papers in "Journal of East Asian Linguistics in 2004"

Argument Structure and Ditransitive Verbs in Japanese

Abstract: Ditransitive verbs such as send and give appear in two distinct structures in English, the double object and the to-dative constructions. It is well known that the two differ semantically and syntactically. In some recent works, it is suggested that the semantic differences observed by Bresnan (1978), Oehrle (1976) and others, and the structural properties noted by Barss and Lasnik (1986), Larson (1988), and others, can both be captured by postulating an extra head for the Double Object Construction (DOC, e.g., Marantz (1993), Harley (1995), Pylkkanen (2002)). This head, which corresponds to the applicative head in Bantu languages, takes the goal as its specifier and relates it either to the VP that contains the verb and the theme (Marantz (1993)), or directly to the theme (Pylkkanen (2002)). The applicative head contributes the meaning distinct to the DOC, and it gives rise to the hierarchical structure noted by Barss and Lasnik. This applicative head is missing in the to-dative so that this construction has an argument structure distinct from the DOC. In this paper, we will look at the corresponding construction(s) in Japanese. Unlike English, Japanese appears to have only one structure, in which the goal is marked with the dative and the theme with the accusative case marking. The goal-theme order is assumed to be the basic order (Hoji (1985), Takano (1998), Yatsushiro (1998, 2003)). The only variation is that the theme can occur before the goal, but this is viewed simply as an instance of optional scrambling. We will give arguments that the difference between English and Japanese is only apparent. With close scrutiny, we find that the two argument structures corresponding to the DOC and the to-dative in English exist in Japanese.

Parametric Variation in the Semantics of Comparison: Japanese vs. English

Abstract: 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 accompanying yori) does not, in contrast to an English than-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.

“Tense” and “Lax” Stops in Korean

Abstract: Korean is thought to be unique in having three kinds of voiceless stops: aspirated /ph th kh/, tense /p* t* k*/, and lax /p t k/. The contrast between tense and lax stops raises two theoretical problems. First, to distinguish them either a new feature [tense] is needed, or the contrast in voicing (or aspiration) must be increased from two to three. Either way there is a large increase in the number of possible stops in the world's languages, but the expansion lacks support beyond Korean. Second, initial aspirated and tense consonants correlate with a high tone, and lax and voiced consonants correlate with a low tone. The correlation cannot be explained in the standard tonogenesis model (voiceless-high and voiced-low). We argue instead that (a) underlyingly "tense" stops are regular voiceless unaspirated stops, and "lax" stops are regular voiced stops, (b) there is no compelling evidence for a new distinctive feature, and (c) the consonant-tone correlation is another case of voiceless-high and voiced-low. We conclude that Korean does not have an unusual phonology, and there is no need to complicate feature theory.

Japanese Plurals are Exceptional

Abstract: This paper provides a semantic analysis of morphological plurals with the suffix -tati in Japanese. Although many of the previous analyses treat a -tati plural on a par with a -men plural in Mandarin Chinese, which is inherently definite, we present ample evidence that a -tati plural is unmarked for definiteness. Instead, we analyze a -tati plural as a non-uniform plural whose extension can include entities that are not in the extension of the common noun to which -tati is attached. This proposal proves extremely successful in accounting for a variety of otherwise puzzling properties of a -tati plural, including the lack of generic/kind readings and the tendency to take wide scope.

Dimensions in Korean Laryngeal Phonology

Abstract: The often-cited phenomenon of ‘‘post-obstruent tensing’’ in Korean is taken here to be primarily a skeletal strengthening rather than a feature accretion. On this view, a tense consonant in Korean phonologically fills two skeletal timing slots, i.e., forms a geminate, and the fact that it is articulated with a discernable degree of tension, or glottal constriction, derives from the effects of a surface embellishment which (amending Avery and Idsardi, 2001). We term Korean Enhancement. The special quality of Korean tense consonants then is that they are phonological geminates phonetically augmented with the laryngeal dimension of Glottal Width, which implicates a gesture of glottal constriction; elsewhere, i.e., in singletons, the default gesture for a Glottal Width specification is that of a spread glottis, which results in heavy aspiration in the phonemically aspirated series. A further requirement that the Laryngeal node be structurally bipositional accounts for the celebrated syllable-final neutralizations (monopositional coda obstruents necessarily simplify to lax stops, which have no specified Laryngeal structure) as well as for the appearance of raised pitch on vowels following either tense or aspirated obstruents but not laryngeally empty lax ones (Jun (1993).

Aspect Agreement and Light Verbs in Chinese: A Comparison with Japanese

Abstract: In this article I distinguish two types of sentence final particles (SFPs) and two types of predicates in Chinese in terms of the aspectual features [±dynamic]. I assume that aspect in Chinese projects a maximal projection, AspectP, which determines the temporal properties of predicates. It is argued that the predicates and the SFPs in Chinese sentences must agree in the [±dynamic] features in syntax. It is also argued that Chinese has two light verbs: the static light verb slv and the dynamic light verb dlv. These two light verbs, in conjunction with the lexical verbs, determine the event structures of the predicates in Chinese, and furthermore serve as the basis for the syntactic agreement of the aspectuality between the SFPs and the predicates. In this article I also compare the SFPs and predicates in Chinese and Japanese. Based on empirical evidence, I propose that Japanese lacks syntactic aspect agreement, in sharp contrast with Chinese.

Auxiliary Selection in the East

Abstract: The perfect auxiliaries in Old Japanese, -tu and -nu, display a close distributional correspondence to the European auxiliaries ‘have’ and ‘be’, particularly to hebben and zijn in Dutch, not only in the core cases where -tu/hebben appear with transitives/unergatives and -nu/zijn with passives/unaccusatives, but also in the following exceptional cases: Dutch is known to have a few transitive verbs, such as those for ‘forget’ and ‘pass’, which exceptionally select zijn Old Japanese also has a small class of exceptional transitives, among which are the verbs meaning ‘forget’ and ‘pass’ Since this is thought not likely to be accidental, the reasonable conclusions are that -tu/-nu selection and hebben/zijn selection are essentially the same phenomenon, and it is by the very nature of this phenomenon that verbs like ‘forget’ are favored as exceptions over many other transitive verbs. Auxiliary selection is therefore a phenomenon not confined to European languages – a conclusion which throws fresh light upon some important issues in the theory of auxiliary selection.

Infixing with a Vengeance: Pingding Mandarin Infixation

Abstract: In the Pingding dialect of Mandarin, the infixing of a retroflex lateral, -l-, before the nucleus marks diminutive. Pingding infixation not only creates onset clusters but also introduces a phoneme. Both features are otherwise not found elsewhere in the language. We argue that the infix -l-, which is cognate with the diminutive -r suffix in other Mandarin dialects, is the result of rhotic metathesis (cf. Blevins and Garrett (1998)). This study shows that Pingding infixation presents an interesting challenge to the theory that claims sound change/metathesis is perceptually optimizing and that it is goal-driven (Hume (1997, 1998, 2001), Steriade (2001)). In this paper, we advance a theory of the origin of Pingding infixation, based on the listener-oriented (i.e., `innocent') view of sound change (Ohala (1993)), which accounts for the appearance of -l- as an excrescent segment through acoustic means, rather than articulatory (Chen (1992)) or phonotactic ones (Lin (2002)).

Conspiracy of Form and Function for Optimization of Language Change

Abstract: Formal and functional approaches to language have been at odds with each other for some time. However, this state of affairs is not constructive or productive. In this paper I will show that an ongoing morphological change in Japanese, ra-nuki kotoba 'ra-deletion language', initiated by functional motivation like economy (communicative efficiency), is guided and shaped most effectively by interacting formal (syntactic/semantic) properties of related constructions. Through the exposition in this paper I would like to demonstrate that there is nothing incompatible between the orientations of formalism and functionalism. The former provides descriptions and explanations for structural possibilities (or delimitation) of language. From these possibilities, certain forms are chosen (or preferred) over others for various purposes (communication, innovation, etc.) according to the principles and generalizations of the latter.

Antilogophoricity, Epithets and the Empty Antilogophor in Chinese

Abstract: The null object in examples which Xu (1986) provides to argue against the existence of the subject-object asymmetry of the kind observed in Huang (1982, 1984a, b) in fact is an empty antilogophor (henceforth EA) subject to Binding Condition B and the Empty Antilogophoric Condition. I believe that there are at least two types of null objects in Chinese, namely the EA and the variable. The former must occur in a pragmatically oriented environment where a pragmatically downgraded internal protagonisted antecedent is available while the latter may occur in a pragmatically neutral environment. Seen in this way, Xu's examples at first sight appear to be problematic for Huang's (1982, 1984a, b and 1987) Null Topic Analysis, but upon a closer scrutiny turn out not to apply. The Empty Antilogophoric Analysis of the Chinese null object in Xu's examples has two theoretical and empirical implications: first, the proposal is reminiscent of Dubinsky and Hamilton's (1998) Antilogophoric Analysis of English epithets; this further implies that Huang's (1991) Null Epithet Analysis of null objects, which suggests that the Chinese null object is the null counterpart of epithets subject to Binding Condition C, is inadequate. Second, the patterns observed may indicate that there are at least three types of antilogophors in Chinese; these are not independent of each other but represent different degrees of directness in which antilogophoric attitudes manifest themselves.