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JEAL - Recently Published (Springer)
JEAL - Recently Published (Springer)Predication and information structure in Mandarin ChineseAbstract The purpose of this article is to show that long-established insights into the close relation between predicate structure
and information structure in Mandarin Chinese can account for a number of concrete observations once they are formalized.
In the course of the discussion, I will develop formal definitions of the principle I refer to as the Predicate-Comment Mapping
Hypothesis and of the copula and comment marker shi. After discussing how they apply to simple assertive clauses, I will show that these definitions allow us to derive the correct
predictions about the differences between three different types of polarity questions—the so-called ma questions, shi-bu-shi questions and A-neg-A questions.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Mandarin transitive comparatives and the grammar of measurementAbstract Mandarin Chinese has two strategies for forming comparatives of superiority: one in which the standard of comparison is introduced
by the morpheme bi, and one that resembles a transitive verb construction, in which the standard of comparison directly follows a gradable adjective.
The ‘transitive comparative’ exhibits two special restrictions: the predicate must be one that accepts differential measure
phrases, and the measure phrase must be overt. We argue that these facts support an analysis of the syntax of the adjectival
projection in which gradable adjectives do not project degree arguments, as typically assumed, but do so only in combination
with a covert morpheme μ. Building on the proposal that argument DPs in Mandarin require Case, we hypothesize that there are (at least) two case assigners
for standards of comparison in Mandarin: the overt morpheme bi and the covert morpheme μ found in transitive comparatives.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Adaptation of English complex words into KoreanAbstract Most previous studies related to loanword adaptation have centered on segmental mappings between source and loanword sounds
in morphologically simplex words (LaCharité and Paradis, Ling Inq 36:223–258, 2005; Kang, Phonology 20:1–56, 2003). However, few have considered the adaptation of complex words, specifically words made of multiple free morphemes. Examining
the adaptation of complex English words into Korean, the present study makes four claims. First, it proposes that each component
of a complex word is a unit for loanword adaptation in calculating sound mappings. Second, it suggests that each component
word is a stem, whereas a loanword as a whole is categorized as a nominal word in Korean. Third, apparent single-unit adaptation
is possible only when the first component allows variable final vowel epenthesis at the end of the first component word; this
is analyzed in terms of split-base effects. Fourth, the allophonic realization of phonemes plays a crucial role in loanword
adaptation. These claims are empirically supported by loanwords found via the National Academy of Korean Language (NAKL 1991) and Google searching (March–June 2011). Furthermore, this study provides an explicit formalization of the analysis of complex
loanwords within Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, Opimality Theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar,
1993). The present study contributes to the literature of loanword phonology by shedding light on several issues. First, the study
proposes a model for the adaptation of complex loanwords wherein both morphological structure and the phonetic information
of the source language play important roles. There has been intense debate about the effect of input information on loanword
adaptation, broadly split between a phonological view (LaCharité and Paradis, Ling Inq 36:223–258, 2005) and a perceptual view (Silverman, Phonology 9:289–328, 1992; Steriade, in: Hume and Johnson (eds.) The role of speech perception in phonology, 2001; Peperkamp and Dupoux, Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2003). The adaptation of complex English words in Korean supports the perceptual approach, in that the allophone realized in a
complex word determines the loanword sound. It also reveals that sound mappings in loanwords are determined by the morphological
structure of source words. There has been a discussion about whether the morphosyntactic base is isomorphic to the phonological
base (Steriade, Lexical conservatism and the notion base of affixation, 2000). Component-by-component analysis of the apparent single-unit adaptation provides support for the existence of a split-base
effect as well as for the lexical conservatism proposed by Steriade (Lexical conservatism and the notion base of affixation,
2000). Finally, it makes a contribution to evaluation of the internal structure and morphological category of complex loanwords,
which has been rarely considered in the literature on loanword phonology.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] On the argument structure of Zi-verbs in Japanese: reply to Tsujimura and Aikawa (1999)Abstract Tsujimura and Aikawa (J Assoc Teach Jpn 33: 26–43, 1999) argue that objectless zi-verbs in Japanese uniformly have the unaccusative argument structure based on two tests for unaccusativity (resultative predication
and quantifier floating). In this paper, we provide new evidence against their uniform unaccusative analysis. Applying several
other diagnostics for external/internal argumenthood in Japanese, we demonstrate that objectless zi-verbs instantiate a full range of argument structure configurations: (a) transitive (e.g., zi-satu-suru ‘kill oneself’), (b) unaccusative (e.g., zi-kai-suru ‘collapse by itself’), and (c) unergative (e.g., zi-sui-suru ‘cook for oneself’). We further show that our new analysis framed in terms of the Lexical Conceptual Structure not only derives
the various properties of the three types of objectless zi-verbs but also derives the different argument structural functions and meanings that the zi-morpheme is associated with in each type.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] A quantificational disclosure approach to Japanese and Korean internally headed relativesAbstract Grosu (J East Asian Linguist 19:231–274, 2010) argues against analyses of Japanese and Korean internally headed relative clauses in terms of discourse anaphora and in
favor of an analysis which postulates a functional category ChR (Choose Role) in the syntax of these constructions, the semantics
of which allows quantificational disclosure. The present paper constitutes a follow-up on Grosu (2010), with the interrelated goals of (i) strengthening Grosu’s arguments against discourse anaphora approaches and in favor of
a grammar-based quantificational disclosure approach, (ii) improving substantively on the syntactic and semantic characterization
of the functional category ChR, and (iii) justifying the introduction of additional mechanisms that render that analysis adequate
with respect to a substantially wider set of data types. The proposals made in the present paper strengthen Grosu’s central
thesis, which is that, despite undeniable partial similarities to discourse anaphora, Japanese and Korean internally headed
relatives are bona fide relatives. The paper shows the semantic fruitfulness of this analysis by discussing a series of examples of increasing semantic
complexity and by arguing that Japanese and Korean internally headed relatives provide striking evidence for a semantic scope
mechanism that has been independently discussed in the context of the semantics of plurality and cumulative readings, a mechanism
that allows part of the meaning of (argument) noun phrases to take local (adverbial) scope.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Word-length preferences in Chinese: a corpus studyAbstract Are there preferred word-length combinations in Chinese? If there are, are they motivated by semantics, syntax, prosody, or
a combination of these? While the issue has been discussed for some time, opinions remain divided. This study offers a quantitative
analysis of word-length patterns in Chinese [N N] and [V O] sequences, using the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese. It
is found that 1+2 is overwhelmingly disfavored in [N N] and 2+1 is overwhelmingly disfavored in [V O]. In addition, it is
found that apparent exceptions, ranging between 1 and 2%, are limited to certain specific structures, and when these are factored
out, both 1+2 [N N] and 2+1 [V O] are well below 1% in either token count or type count. The result bears on several theoretical
debates, such as the validity of word-length preferences in Chinese, the motivation of the preferences, the extent and the
nature of exceptions, and the interaction among syntax, semantics, and phonology.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Argument reduction and anaphora resolution: the case of xiang−verbs in Mandarin ChineseAbstract In this paper, I discuss argument reduction and anaphora resolution of xiang−verbs in Mandarin Chinese. When xiang is prefixed to a verbal stem, one of the arguments of the verbal stem is absorbed, xiang functions as an anaphor replacing the absorbed argument and hence requires an antecedent. I argue that the argument reduction
of xiang−verbs depends on the Thematic Role Hierarchy (Bresnan and Kanerva, Language 70:72–131, 1989; Bresnan, Linguistic Inq 20(1):10–50, 1993): the second highest role on the argument structure of a verbal stem to which xiang is attached, is absorbed. For anaphora resolution, I propose a non-subject constraint, Available Candidates for xiang, which includes a principle utilizing attachment sites of Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (for short, SDRT) to
determine a set of candidates for the antecedent to xiang a last resort to include the speaker and addressee(s) in the set when there is no available candidate, and a pragmatic principle
to select the most fitting one from the set of candidates to be the antecedent to xiang. And, I propose an SDRT account for the phenomena observed. I also discuss the reciprocity of xiang-verbs and suggest that reciprocal xiang-verbs and non-reciprocal xiang-verbs have the same origin. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the SDRT account argued in this paper can be extended to zero
anaphora resolution (with some modification) and is, at least to a certain degree, applicable to the resolution of the third
person singular anaphor ta ‘he/she’.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Subject honorification and the position of subjects in JapaneseAbstract Subject honorification in Japanese is often characterized as targeting subjects, but in this article, I propose to formulate
it as vP-level agreement, where an honorific head agrees with an argument (carrying the semantic feature [+honorific]) that
appears in its associated Spec,vP. This proposal provides a straightforward account for some honorification facts which cannot
be accounted for if subject honorification is simply taken to target subjects: namely, (1) the fact that subject honorification
is often, but not always, possible at two distinct structural levels in the aspectual construction where the main verb is
followed by the aspectual verb iru; (2) the fact that in the possessive construction with the animate verb iru ‘have’, subject honorification can target not only the dative subject but also the nominative object. Furthermore, on the
basis of what I call ‘the kara-subject construction’, the overt constituent position of subjects is shown to vary according to whether T contains the Case
feature [+nominative] to license a nominative argument: Subjects undergo raising to Spec,TP when T carries [+nominative],
but when T lacks it, subjects are not raised to Spec,TP.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] P-stranding under sluicing and repair by ellipsis: why is Indonesian (not) special?Abstract This paper presents novel evidence that P-stranding in Indonesian contradicts Merchant’s (The syntax of silence: sluicing,
islands, and the theory of ellipsis, 2001) generalization that P-stranding under sluicing is possible only in those languages that allow this option under regular
wh-movement. It is proposed that this apparently special pattern is accounted for by the recent idea of repair by ellipsis (Ross,
in Binnick et al. (eds.) Papers from the 5th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 1969; Merchant, The syntax of silence: sluicing, islands, and the theory of ellipsis; Lasnik, M: Kim and Strauss (eds.) Proceedings
of NELS 31, 2001). Specifically, the failure of percolation of the wh-feature is repaired by PF deletion. P-stranding in French and German cannot be so repaired since the violation in question
is a strictly computational violation caused by D-to-P incorporation. Our cross-linguistic examination of P-stranding suggests
a bifurcated view of violations (Boeckx and Lasnik in Linguistic Inquiry 37: 150–155, 2006); violations pertaining to the syntax-phonology interface in principle can be repaired whereas violations incurred within
the syntactic computation cannot. This contrast in “reparability” naturally falls out from a minimalist architecture of the
syntax-phonology interface. A broader implication of the present analysis is that syntax is itself not a crash-proof system
in the sense of Frampton and Gutmann (Syntax 2:1–27, 1999; Derivation and explanation in the minimalist program. Blackwell, Oxford, 2002); it could produce certain operational failures, but language-particular parameters afford a bit of leeway for PF to remedy
them at the syntax-phonology interface.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] A comitative source for object markers in Sinitic languages: 跟kai55 in Waxiang and 共kang7 in Southern MinAbstract This analysis sets out to specifically discuss the polyfunctionality of 跟[kai55] in Waxiang (Sinitic), whose lexical source is the verb ‘to follow’. Amongst its various uses, we find a preposition ‘with,
along’, a marker of adjuncts and a NP conjunction, thus superficially resembling its Mandarin cognate 跟gēn ‘with’. Curiously, however, it has also evolved into a direct object marker in Waxiang, with a function similar to that of
the preposition 把bǎ < ‘hold, take’ as found in the S-bǎ-OVP or so-called ‘disposal’ form in standard Mandarin. The pathways of grammaticalization for 跟[kai55] inWaxiang are thus discussed in order to determine how it has developed this unusual grammatical function in one of the
linguistic zones of China where verbs of giving or taking are, in fact, the main source for grammaticalized object markers
in ‘disposal’ constructions. On the basis of sixteenth and seventeenth century Southern Min literature (Sinitic), a comparison
is also made with analogous developments for comitative 共kang
7 (Mandarin gòng) ‘with’ to provide support for our hypothesis that the direct object marking use has evolved from the oblique function of
a benefactive or dative, and is clearly separate from the crosslinguistically well-attested pathway that leads to its use
as a conjunction. We would thus like to propose that these data contribute a new pattern to the stock of grammaticalization
pathways, specifically, comitative > dative/benefactive > accusative (direct object marker).
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Intervention effects and wh-construalsAbstract The exploration on wh-intervention effects generally suffers from distributional variations both across and within languages. In this study, a
specific, clear divide with respect to wh-intervention effects in Mandarin Chinese is investigated, which in turn sheds light on the puzzling variations in general.
I show that the variations of intervention effects cannot be handled in a uniform way. They can be at best captured if we
categorize them into two types of syntactic effects, i.e., minimality effect and competition effect, each of which is triggered
by independent factors. Meanwhile, to cover the intervention effects crosslinguistically, it is essential to take into account
the typological difference of in-situ wh-construals. The various distributions of intervention effects are, then, a natural result of the interplay between the different
types of intervention effects and wh-construals.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] The parameter of temporal endpoint and the basic function of -leAbstract This paper proposes a unified account for the different meanings and unique distribution of –le. This new account is based on two major arguments: (1) temporal endpoints are provided via a parameter that varies across
languages (i.e., some languages rely heavily on tense, while others rely on lexical expressions or other mechanisms), and
(2) accomplishment and achievement verbs should be re-sorted in accordance with the new leading to result ([>result]) and encoding result ([⊃result]) criterion. I have shown that the interaction between the parametric variation in providing endpoints and the
meanings of different types of situations, not only accounts for the restricted occurrence of -le with [-telic] situations, but also explains a) the possibility of non-completion readings for some [>result] situations in
Chinese, b) the impossibility of non-completion readings for [⊃result] situations in both Chinese and English, and c) the
possible present continuative readings for certain types of verbs in Chinese.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Double complement unaccusatives in Japanese: puzzles and implicationsAbstract This article examines the nature of double complement unaccusatives in Japanese, namely, unaccusative constructions having
a goal argument as well as a theme argument. It is shown that double complement unaccusatives exhibit puzzling properties
with respect to two diagnostics for subjecthood—binding of zibun and subject honorification; specifically, (i) unlike other constructions, where only one argument (i.e., the subject) can
antecede zibun, double complement unaccusatives allow both the theme and the goal arguments to antecede zibun and (ii) unlike binding of zibun, subject honorification can be licensed only by the theme argument. It is proposed that these puzzling properties can receive
a natural account if (i) in Japanese “subject” is defined as an element that satisfies v’s EPP feature and (ii) the goal argument
of Japanese unaccusatives is a PP. It is also shown that this proposal has important implications for the nature of subject
orientation, the EPP, and the (dative) Case.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Island repair effects of the Left Branch Condition in Mandarin ChineseAbstract This study employs the island repair effect on the Left Branch Condition (LBC) to illuminate the derivation of Mandarin sluicing.
It utilizes three unique properties of Mandarin island repair related to the LBC involving (i) covert antecedents, (ii) contrastive
modifiers, and (iii) multiple islands including LBC structures in order to examine two deletion-based analyses of sluicing
in the literature. It is shown that these analyses fail to satisfactorily explain the properties discussed. To capture the
facts, a pseudosluicing analysis is proposed which claims that sluiced clauses in Mandarin are simply composed of a subject
pro, an (optional) copula shi ‘be’, and a wh-in-situ wh-remnant serving as a predicate. The strong redemptive ability of repairing LBC effects in Mandarin is attributed to the construal
of pro instead of deletion. From a typological point of view, among East Asian languages, Mandarin sluices differ from Japanese
and Korean sluices in that the pro of the former cannot be interpreted as a concealed cleft structure but instead functions as an implicit subject.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] On one more source of Old Japanese i2Abstract The goal of this article is to provide further and systematic evidence for an idea suggested only in passing that the Old Japanese vowel i
2 derives diachronically not only from *əy and *uy, as traditionally believed, but also from *oy. This solution proves to be
a key to solving some puzzles in the phonological history of a number of common Old Japanese words.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Real parasitic gaps in JapaneseAbstract 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, 2006) 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Aspects of Japanese loanword devoicingAbstract Nishimura (M.A. thesis, 2003) 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, 2003) and Kawahara (Language 82(3):536–574, 2006). Kawahara (Nat Lang Linguist Theory, 2011a) addressed this problem by conducting a rating study. The first aim of this study, building on Kawahara (Nat Lang Linguist
Theory, 2011a), 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Idioms, mixed marking in nominalization, and the base-generation hypothesis for ditransitives in JapaneseAbstract This paper replies to Kishimoto’s (2008, J East Asian Linguist 17: 141–179) challenge to Miyagawa and Tsujioka (2004, 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 (2004). In so doing, I will present data that support Watanabe (2009, J East Asian Linguist 19:61–74) to posit dual status of no.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] On the temporal interpretation of Japanese temporal clauseAbstract The interpretation of Japanese temporal clauses depends on an intricate interplay between a number of factors including, in
addition to the temporal connective, the tense and aspectual properties of the embedded clause as well as the matrix clause.
This paper presents a detailed survey of these interactions and a model-theoretic compositional analysis which improves significantly
over previous proposals in terms of attention to empirical detail and internal simplicity.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Multiple-classifier constructions and nominal expressions in ChineseAbstract 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, 1998a, Nat Lang Semant 6:339–405, 1998b) and the Classifier Phrase analysis in Cheng and Sybesma (Linguist Inq 30:509–542, 1999; in: Cinque G, Kayne R (ed) The Oxford handbook of comparative syntax, Oxford University Press, pp 259–292, 2005), from the properties of multiple-classifier constructions, a universal DP analysis is favored (as in Li, Linguist Inq 29:
693–702, 1998). 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, 1998) and Dayal (Linguist Philos 27:393–450, 2004), 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] On the interpretation of toki-clauses: beyond the absolute/relative dichotomyAbstract The Japanese toki-clause, a kind of temporal adverbial clause, exhibits several interesting properties regarding the semantic interpretation
and selection of an embedded tense form. This paper argues that toki is ambiguous in three ways and may indicate three different temporal relations between the matrix eventuality (ME) and the
subordinate eventuality (SE): (i) ME is simultaneous with SE (the WHEN-interpretation), (ii) ME is immediately prior to SE
(the RIGHT BEFORE-interpretation), and (iii) ME is immediately subsequent to SE (the RIGHT AFTER-interpretation). Problems
with existing analyses that seek a uniform treatment of toki will be pointed out, and it will be demonstrated that the proposed analysis provides a thorough and consistent account of
the possible interpretations of toki-clauses under different conditions.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Analogy and lexical restructuring in the development of nominal stem inflection from Middle to Contemporary KoreanAbstract This paper tries to elucidate the asymmetric distribution of stem-final coronal (SFC) obstruent codas in the nouns of Contemporary
Korean (CK) by documenting their historical development from Middle Korean (fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, MK). Examination
of historical data suggests that there was an intermediate stage in Korean in which [s] was far and away the most prevalent
phonetic value and thus triggered analogical extension to other SFCs through a stage of free variation between [s] and [t].
Subsequent developments involving the completion of the occlusivization of [s] obscure this state of affairs. Two other factors
which resulted in the biased distribution of SFCs in CK are also pointed out: (1) the simplification of SFCs’ oppositions
in polysyllabic words based on their near-complementary distribution and (2) the type-frequency of MK SFCs, which takes into
account compound words as well as simplex (= non-compound) words.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] The Malay verbal prefix meN- and the unergative/unaccusative distinctionAbstract The verbal prefix meN- in Malay is known to block DP movement. The existing analyses of this phenomenon focus on the blocking effect of meN- in transitive sentences but have not paid attention to whether such an effect holds in intransitive sentences. In this paper,
we examine the blocking effect of meN- in intransitive sentences and show that, surprisingly, meN- does not appear to block DP movement in sentences that are usually considered unaccusative. We propose that no blocking effect
is found in intransitive sentences because all intransitive meN- sentences are unergative. We present a hypothesis of the relation between verb meaning and sentence structure that accounts
for meN-’s effect on verb syntax, making use of the notion of telicity and the distinction between “internal” and “external” causation.
Our analysis implies that both lexical specification and structural determination are involved in determining the unergative/unaccusative
distinction.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] On Chinese appositive relative clausesAbstract There is currently no consensus in the literature with the respect to the semantic status of relative clauses in Mandarin
Chinese. Some authors (Zhang 2001; Del Gobbo 2003, 2004, 2005) claim that relative clauses in Mandarin Chinese can only be interpreted as restrictives; others (see Lin 2003) instead maintain that relative clauses in this language can be both restrictive and appositive. In this paper, I claim that
Chinese relative clauses modifying proper names and pronouns can indeed be appositive, but they are still crucially different
from appositive relative clauses in English. Following Cinque’s (2006a, 2008a) distinction between “integrated appositive relative clauses” and “non-integrated” ones, I claim that Chinese appositive
relatives belong to the class of the “integrated” ones. I furthermore propose that the typological difference between the
“integrated” appositives and the “non-integrated” ones is due to the absence versus presence of the relative pronoun. Adopting
Cinque’s (2006a, 2008a) theory of relativization, I propose a structure for Chinese relative clauses whereby c-command of the internal head of the
relative is disallowed. This explains why the internal head of the Chinese relative clause can never be generated as a relative
pronoun and, more generally, why overt relative pronouns are unavailable in prenominal relative clauses cross-linguistically.
Last, the theory here outlined makes the strong empirical prediction that no prenominal relative clause can be appositive
in the canonical sense.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] A parametric approach to NP ellipsis in Mandarin and CantoneseAbstract 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Explaining variation in Korean case ellipsis: Economy versus iconicityAbstract The naturalness with which case ellipsis occurs in certain environments in Korean has been attributed to the information status
and markedness of arguments. In recent accounts of case ellipsis in colloquial Korean proposed by Lee (Lang Res 42:323–355,
2006a; J Pragmat 39:1465–1481, 2007) and Kim (PhD dissertation, 2008), the effects of these factors on case ellipsis have been subsumed under iconicity of complexity. In this paper we argue
that iconicity plays no role in stating and explaining patterns of variation in case ellipsis and propose an alternative usage-based
explanation in terms of economy. This proposal subsumes and clarifies previous findings about the influence of the factors
of contrastiveness, animacy, and definiteness and connects these findings to asymmetries in frequency and predictability.
In addition, the economy account leads to a number of other predictions that the iconicity account does not make, including
differences in the direction of the effects of contrastiveness and animacy/definiteness and differences between subject and
object marking. Using evidence from two rating experiments, this paper also demonstrates that preference for case ellipsis
on three subtypes of focused objects (selecting, replacing, and informational focus) increases relative to the degree of predictability
whereas average ratings between sentences with these subtypes of focus subjects do not show a statistically significant difference.
This finding is not consistent with the prediction of the iconicity-of-the-complexity principle and cannot be accounted for
in terms of the dichotomous distinction between contrastive vs. non-contrastive focus. This paper is the first demonstration
that the gradient pattern of case ellipsis shown by subtypes of focus can be explained in terms of asymmetries in frequency
and predictability, i.e., the economy principle, and suggests that it may be possible to explain the effects of information
structural factors and animacy/definiteness on the ellipsis of case markers for both focused and non-focus arguments entirely
through the economy principle.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Case, Phases, and Nominative/Accusative Conversion in JapaneseAbstract One of the central issues in the current Minimalist Program is the exact definition of phases. This article argues for a specific
interpretation of phases, based on an account of a scope puzzle in the Nominative/Accusative conversion in Japanese. I show
that the puzzle is best accounted for by postulating QR, which is bound by domains of Case-valuation. Based on an observation
that scope of QR is phase-bound, I conclude that phases are determined via Case-valuation. This suggests that phases are not
determined intrinsically, but contextually. The analysis has an implication for the landing site of short scrambling.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] A note on ‘Raising to Object’ in small clauses and full clausesAbstract This paper argues that both Korean and English have “Raising to Object” in ECM constructions and that in both languages the
raising is obligatory out of small clauses and optional out of full clauses. Abstractly, the two languages are quite similar
in this regard. However, there remain obvious differences between the two languages: In Korean, but not English, raising is
possible out of a finite clause; in English, but not Korean, accusative Case marking can take place without raising. We suggest
that these differences follow from the nature of the Case properties of Infl in the two languages, apparently a relatively
simple parameter.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] The status of the internally-headed relatives of Japanese/Korean within the typology of definite relativesAbstract The principal thesis defended in this paper is that the most recent and successful approach to the internally-headed relative
(IHR) constructions of Japanese and Korean, i.e., the one in Kim (Nat Lang Semant 15:279–315, 2007)—which proposes, building
on Hoshi (Structural and interpretive aspects of head-internal and head-external relative clauses, Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Rochester, 1995) and Shimoyama (J East Asian Linguist 8:147–182, 1999; Wh-constructions in Japenese, Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2001), that the analysis of these IHRs needs to rely on the E-type strategy—is demonstrably
wrong empirically in relation to both the procedure for licensing IHs and the characterization of temporal relations between
the IHR and its matrix, as well as conceptually objectionable in attaching the E-type label to analyses that have to rely
on mechanisms that are entirely independent of those used in analyses of E-type anaphora in discourse. The paper proposes
an alternative analysis that avoids the difficulties encountered by E-type analyses, and which relies on local equation of
the IH with a variable, ultimately assigning to the relative clause the status of a singleton predicate, thereby bringing
these IHRs under the more general umbrella of definite/maximalizing relative constructions, while at the same time providing
a motivated account of certain similarities between such IHRs and E-type anaphora, which, while real, do not justify an analytical
reduction of the former to the latter.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Learning that classifiers count: Mandarin-speaking children’s acquisition of sortal and mensural classifiersAbstract Two experiments explored two- to five-year-old Mandarin-speaking children’s acquisition of classifiers, mandatory morphemes
for expressing quantities in many Asian languages. Classifiers are similar to measure words in English (e.g., a piece of apple; a cup of apples), with the main difference being that classifiers are also required when counting sortals (e.g., yi ge pinguo or “one unit apple” in Mandarin means “one apple”). The current study extended prior studies (e.g., Chien et al., J East Asian Linguist
12:91–120, 2003) to examine Mandarin-speaking children’s understanding of classifiers as indicating units of quantification.
Children were also tested on their knowledge of numerals to assess the relationship between children’s acquisition of numerals
and classifiers. The findings suggest that children first notice that sortal classifiers specify properties such as shape.
Only after learning some numerals do they begin to work out how classifiers indicate units of quantification. By age four,
children scored above chance on most classifiers tested.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Dimension-denoting classifiers in Taiwanese compound adjectivesAbstract 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Object Preposing in Classical and Pre-Medieval ChineseAbstract 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Some remarks on Contour Tone UnitsAbstract This paper reviews a previous assumption that contour tones are units (i.e., Contour Tone Unit, CTU) in Asian tone languages
and can therefore spread, assimilate, or dissimilate as wholes. One problem for such an assumption is that not all Asian languages
pattern uniformly, and some show a rather different, prototypically African tone language pattern. Furthermore, the assumption
yields analytical gaps which need to be covered by more arbitrary rules. In this paper non-CTU approaches are proposed to
re-analyze contour tone sandhi in various Chinese dialects with broader generalizations and stronger explanations. The paper
also argues against the CTU since the contrast between it and the non-CTU has never been reported. Despite the fact that some
phonetic differences have been discovered between two identical contour tones, the differences are not necessarily mapped
with different contour tone representations (i.e., CTU vs. non-CTU). In sum, since the CTU is not beneficial analytically
and theoretically, there is no reason to consider it as part of Universal Grammar.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Stem-final obstruent variation in KoreanAbstract It has been observed in the literature that stem-final coronal obstruents of nouns in Korean are generally in variation with
[s] in the prevocalic position: for example, /pathh-ɨl/ [pathh-ɨl] ~ [pasɨl] ‘field, accusative’. In addition, nouns with final noncoronal stops have variants ending in lenis stops: for
example, /iph-e/ [iph-e] ~ [ipe] ‘leaf, locative’. Recent survey and experimental studies reveal that a wide set of coronal obstruents [s, ch, th, c, t] may occur as variants. Moreover, there is an order of preference among them: in general, s >> ch, th >> c, t. This paper first shows that the observed relative preference among variants is matched by the distribution of lexical
final obstruents in noun stems. Building on Albright’s Paradigm Learning Model, I provide a unified account for the occurrence
of most variants and their relative preference by proposing stochastic rules deriving the paradigmatically related forms of
noun stems. In addition, a wug-test is carried out to investigate the productivity of such rules. Results suggest that these
rules are productive, providing the evidence for their cognitive presence.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Clause-internal wh-movement in Archaic ChineseAbstract This paper proposes an analysis of wh-movement in late archaic Chinese as clause-internal focus fronting to the edge of vP. The paper further shows that archaic Chinese wh-words were indefinites, as in modern Chinese, and that their interpretation was obtained in the c-command domain of an appropriate
trigger, a base-generated operator in [Spec, CP] in the case of wh-questions. The non-quantificational status of wh-words accords well with the short movement analysis since this movement did not serve to place the wh-word in the interrogative scope position in the left periphery of the clause. In this way, the paper also offers a contribution
to the growing debate concerning the relationship between wh-movement and the status of wh-words as operators or indefinites. The conclusion here is that movement of wh-indefinites is not unexpected if the landing site is lower than the interrogative scope position.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Mood and Case: with special reference to genitive Case conversion in Kansai JapaneseAbstract 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Why questions, presuppositions, and intervention effectsAbstract Intervention effects, triggered by the presence of an intervener c-commanding a Wh-phrase, are known to be weaker in why questions in Japanese and Korean. The existing analyses of this surprising phenomenon focus on the comparison between why questions and other Wh-questions but have not paid attention to the fact that the sentence is still judged more acceptable
when an intervener does not c-command why. This paper presents a novel account that appeals to a peculiar presuppositional property of why questions and their impact on the information structure of Wh-questions. Unlike the previous analyses, the proposal can correctly
derive graded acceptability of why questions in intervention contexts. It is also shown that the re-emergence of intervention effects with embedded why questions also has its root in the presupposition.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Negative wh-construction and its semantic propertiesAbstract 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] The syllable in Old Chinese: sub-syllabic processes, syllable structure, and the status of medial glidesAbstract How to represent a syllable is by no means a settled question in generative grammar. This paper employs the diagnostic tool
Replace (X) to examine the sub-syllabic constituency in Old Chinese (OC) by virtue of two types of directional reduplication
data: progressive and retrogressive reduplication. This paper finds that the OC syllable is comprised of onset, nucleus, and
rhyme, which have different representations in the syllable structure. This paper also argues that the OC tone should be represented
in terms of another independent plane, i.e., adjoining to the whole syllable rather than the rhyme sub-syllabic constituent,
on the basis of the rhyming in Shijing ‘Book of Odes’. The OC medial glides -j- and -w- show an asymmetric status in syllable structure. The former tends to be aligned with the rhyme, while the latter tends to
be aligned with onset. Comparing with other OC syllable structures, it is found that theoretical analyses reveal certain aspects
of sub-syllabic processes, such as the placements of medial glides, and help us to examine syllabic representations such as
tone representation, all of which may not be detected by direct observation of a maximal syllable in OC. Furthermore, a comparison
of syllable structures in OC and Middle Chinese suggests that syllable structure, as well as other phonological phenomena,
underwent great changes from OC to Middle Chinese or Guangyun phonology.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Free and not-so-free demonstratives in JingpoAbstract In English demonstratives cannot co-occur with articles, so it is assumed that demonstratives should be treated as determiners
(D). In some other languages, such as Spanish, postnominal demonstratives show no complementary distribution with articles;
therefore, demonstratives are argued to be lexical heads projecting to lexical phrases (XP). In Jingpo, a Tibeto-Burman language,
demonstratives which are inflected for number show relative freedom in syntactic distribution. Singular demonstratives can
occur either prenominally, postnominally or appear twice to sandwich the head noun. Plural demonstratives can only occur postnominally.
The relative freedom shown in the syntactic distribution of Jingpo demonstratives is accounted for in the present paper with
the proposal that demonstratives in the right peripheral of the nominal phrase are D-type demonstratives and demonstratives
adjacent to the head noun are A(djective)-type demonstratives. The analysis thus calls for a non-unitary treatment of demonstratives.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Notes on nominal ellipsis and the nature of no and classifiers in JapaneseAbstract 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Young children’s production of head-final relative clauses: Elicited production data from Chinese childrenAbstract This study examines young children’s production of head-final relative clauses (RCs) in Chinese. Three different hypotheses
(the Canonical Word Order Hypothesis, the Filler-gap Linear Distance Hypothesis, and the Structural Distance Hypothesis) have
been proposed to account for the subject–object asymmetry found in children’s performance with head-initial RCs in English.
The structure of Chinese head-final RCs is minimally different from that of English head-initial RCs and thus provides an
ideal case to examine the effect of different factors that are confounded in English. Our findings fail to support the Canonical
Word Order Hypothesis and the Filler-gap Linear Distance Hypothesis. Instead, we suggest that it is the gap position in the
hierarchical structure that affects children’s production performance with subject-gapped and object-gapped RCs. Our findings
also suggest that Mandarin Chinese does not belong to the group of East Asian languages which has been argued to have an acquisition
pattern for RCs that is different from the one found in European languages. In addition, the cross-linguistic comparison of
production errors suggests that the occurrence of the head noun in the sequential order of the production string affects the
type of errors children make during the sentence production process.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Dislocation focus construction in ChineseAbstract The use of the Dislocation Focus Construction (DFC) (also known as “Right Dislocation”) in colloquial Chinese (including Cantonese
and Mandarin) gives rise to various non-canonical word orders. In DFCs, the sentence particle (SP) occurs in a sentence-medial
position. The pre- and post-SP materials are demonstrated to be syntactically connected, based on four diagnostic tests, namely
(i) the zinghai ‘only’ test, (ii) the doudai (“wh-the-hell”) test, (iii) polarity item licensing, and (iv) Principle C violations. The findings offer new insights into the
syntax of the Chinese left periphery and constraints on focus movement. First, the observations entail that Chinese CPs are
head-initial, and an XP is obligatorily moved around the SP to a position higher than the CP. Second, the XP-raising in the
DFC is argued to be driven by focus because of the focus interpretation induced. It is discovered that the focus movement
is subject to the Spine Constraint, which turns out to be remarkably similar to the properties of the Nuclear Stress Rule
(e.g., selection of focus set and metrical invisibility). It is argued that the DFC is the syntactic realization of the rule.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] On the nominal-internal distributive interpretation in JapaneseAbstract This paper examines one type of distributive interpretation in Japanese available only in sentences containing a numeral quantifier
(NQ) with the distributive affix zutsu in a pre-nominal position. I propose that what appears to be the simple complex of an NQ with the distributive affix actually
turns out to be a relative clause, which must appear within the NP. I further show that simple NQs can also be located inside
the NP. The fundamental premise of my proposal is the predicative nature of NQs in Japanese (Miyagawa in structure and case
marking in Japanese, 1989; Ueda in Oriental linguistics, 1986). The property of NQs in point allows us to account for the
availability of the interpretation in question in Japanese.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Prosodic size and rendaku immunityAbstract Research has shown there to be a strong relationship between the mora and prosody in Modern Japanese. Recently proposed, although
not as yet independently evaluated, has been a prosodic size rule governing the well-known allomorphic phenomenon of rendaku,
by which the initial consonants of non-initial elements in compounds may be voiced under certain conditions. It is claimed
that this prosodic size rule flags a native Japanese noun as being rendaku immune, a condition for which no empirical verification
has hitherto existed. In this paper the author will demonstrate that, although slight modifications are necessary, a prosodic
size rule for flagging rendaku immunity is indeed a reality.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] In memoriamIn memoriam
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] Yori-comparatives: A reply to Beck et al. (2004)Abstract 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.
view article | [Journal of East Asian Linguistics (Browse Results)] |
