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The Semantic Markedness of the Japanese Negative Preterite: Non-existence of (Positive) Eventualities vs. Existence of Negative Eventualities

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Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics (LENLS 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14213))

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Abstract

In Japanese, the use of a negative preterite (past-perfective) clause (“...V-nakatta”) is discourse-pragmatically constrained, and oftentimes a negative nonpast-nonperfective clause (“...V-te inai”) is used where a preterite clause is expected. At the descriptive level, a negative preterite can be characterized as conveying that the described eventuality was plausible (though did not happen) at some past time. This work argues that the Japanese negative preterite predicate invariably expresses the existence (occurrence) of a “negative eventuality”, as opposed to the non-existence (non-occurrence) of eventualities, and that the “plausibility implication” is a side effect of this feature. It will be furthermore argued that, while Japanese nonpast-tensed clauses generally specify that the topic time is some nonpast time, this does not necessarily apply to nonpast-nonperfective clauses, making it possible for a negative nonpast-nonperfective clause to express the non-existence of eventualities in a past topic time.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    iru is a “nonperfective” auxiliary that may receive a wide array of interpretations, including resulting state, progressive, habitual, and perfect (Sect. 4).

  2. 2.

    The abbreviations in glosses are: Acc \(=\) accusative, Attr \(=\) attributive, Aux \(=\) auxiliary, BenAux \(=\) benefactive auxiliary, DAux \(=\) discourse auxiliary, Dat \(=\) dative, DPrt \(=\) discourse particle, Gen \(=\) genitive, Ger \(=\) gerund, Inf \(=\) infinitive, Intj \(=\) interjection, ModAux \(=\) modal auxiliary, Neg(Aux) \(=\) negation/negative auxiliary, NegGer \(=\) negative gerund, NpfvAux \(=\) non-perfective auxiliary, Npst \(=\) nonpast, Pl \(=\) plural, Plt(Aux) \(=\) polite(ness auxiliary), Pfv \(=\) perfective, Prs \(=\) present, Psv \(=\) passive, Th \(=\) thematic wa (topic/ground marker).

  3. 3.

    This is grossly simpler than Bernard & Champollion’s original formulation, which implements the continuation approach to syntax/semantic interface.

  4. 4.

    https://w.wiki/3D$7 (accessed on October 1, 2021).

  5. 5.

    A past-tensed nonperfective clause, such as (i), does not allow a preterite-like interpretation, unlike its nonpast-tensed counterpart. I take this to be simply because the quasi-past interpretation of i is blocked because it would lead to sheer semantic redundancy, i and -ta both specifying “TT TU”.

    figure ba

    .

  6. 6.

    This pattern does not straightforwardly carry over to counterfactual conditionals with a “fake past” in the matrix clause.

    figure bc

    .

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  1. Graduate School of Humanities, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    David Y. Oshima

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  1. David Y. Oshima
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  1. Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan

    Daisuke Bekki

  2. Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Koji Mineshima

  3. Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan

    Elin McCready

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Oshima, D.Y. (2023). The Semantic Markedness of the Japanese Negative Preterite: Non-existence of (Positive) Eventualities vs. Existence of Negative Eventualities. In: Bekki, D., Mineshima, K., McCready, E. (eds) Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics. LENLS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14213. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43977-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43977-3_3

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