Abstract
Recent studies of Japanese clausal comparatives have yielded several competing theoretical views of their syntax and semantics that have different implications for the issue of crosslinguistic variation in comparative constructions. This paper aims at contributing to this debate by offering a novel syntactic analysis of Japanese clausal comparatives. The main proposal is that despite their appearance, Japanese clausal comparatives involve a nominal structure whose nominal head is deleted by a syntactic deletion operation, and therefore are underlyingly phrasal comparatives. It is demonstrated that this analysis explains peculiar syntactic and semantic properties of Japanese (seemingly) clausal comparatives, some of which have been unidentified in the previous literature. The proposed account also allows us to dispense with the previously proposed semantic variation specific to degree constructions, and entertain a more conservative view of crosslinguistic variation where the differences between Japanese-type and English-type comparative constructions are solely attributed to their morphosyntactic properties.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abney, Steven. 1987. The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Aihara, Masahiko. 2009. The scope of -est: evidence from Japanese. Natural Language Semantics 17(4): 341–367. doi:10.1007/s11050-009-9046-6.
Beck, Sigrid. 2010. Quantifiers in than-clauses. Semantics & Pragmatics 3(1): 1–72. doi: 10.3765/sp.3.1.
Beck, Sigrid, Toshiko Oda, and Koji Sugisaki. 2004. Parametric variation in the semantics of comparison: Japanese vs. English. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 13: 289–344. doi: 10.1007/s10831-004-1289-0.
Bhatt, Rajesh, and Shoichi Takahashi. 2011. Reduced and unreduced phrasal comparatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29(3): 581–620. doi: 10.1007/s11049-011-9137-1.
Bowers John. (1988) Extended X-bar theory. In WCCFL 7: 47–62
Bresnan Joan. (1973) Syntax of the comparative clause construction in English. Linguistic Inquiry 4: 275–343
Büring Daniel. (2007) Cross-polar nomalies. In Proceedings of SALT 17: 37–52
Büring, Daniel. 2009. More or less. In Proceedings of Chicago Linguistic Society, 43.
Chomsky, Noam. 1973. Conditions on transformations. In A Festschrift for Morris Halle, eds. Stephen R. Anderson and Paul Kiparsky, 232–286. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.
Chomsky, Noam. 1977. On wh-movement. In Formal Syntax, eds. Peter Culicover, Thomas Wasow, and Adrian Akmajian, 71–132. New York: Academic Press.
Cresswell, Max J. 1976. The semantics of degree. In Montague Grammar, ed. Barbara H. Partee. New York: Academic Press.
Diesing, Molly. 1992. Indefinites. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Fiengo Robert. (1987) Definiteness, specificity, and familiarity. Linguistic Inquiry 18(1): 163–166
Fiengo Robert., James Higginbotham. (1981) Opacity in NP.. Linguistic Analysis 7: 395–421
Fiengo, Robert, and Robert May. 1994. Indices and identity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hackl, Martin. 2000. Comparative Quantifiers. Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Hankamer, Jorge. 1973. Why there are two than’s in English. In Chicago Linguistic Society, vol. 9, eds. Claudia Corum, T. Cedric Smith-Stark, and Ann Weiser, 179–191. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Harada Shin-Ichi. (1971) Ga-no conversion and ideolectal variations in Japanese. Gengo Kenkyuu 60: 25–38
Hardt, Daniel. 1993. Verb phrase ellipsis: Form, meaning, and processing. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Hayashishita J.R. (2007) Izyoo(ni)- and gurai-comparatives: Comparisons of deviation in Japanese.. Gengo Kenkyuu 132: 77–109
Hayashishita, J.R. 2009. Yori-comparative: Comments on Beck et al. (2004). Journal of East Asian Linguistics 18(2): 65–100. doi: 10.1007/s10831-009-9040-5.
Heim, Irene. 1985. Notes on comparatives and related matters. ms., University of Texas, Austin.
Heim, Irene. 1999. Notes on superlatives. ms., Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Heim, Irene. 2000. Degree operators and scope. In Proceedings of SALT 10, 40–64. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications.
Heim, Irene. 2006. Remarks on comparative clauses as generalized quantifiers. ms., Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Heim, Irene. 2008. Decomposing antonyms? In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 12, 212–225. Oslo: ILOS.
Heim, Irene, and Angelika Kratzer. 1998. Semantics in generative grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hiraiwa Ken. (2002) Nominative-genitive conversion revisited.. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 10: 546–559
Hoeksema Jack. (1983) Negative polarity and the comparative.. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 1: 403–434
Hoji Hajime. (1998) Null object and sloppy identity in Japanese. Linguistic Inquiry 29: 127–152. doi:10.1162/002438998553680
Ishii, Yasuo. 1991. Operators and empty categories in Japanese. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Johnson, Kyle. 2001. What VP-ellipsis can do, what it can’t, but not why. In The handbook of contemporary syntactic theory, eds. Mark Baltin and Chris Collins, 439–479. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kaplan, Tamar I., and John B. Whitman. 1995. The category of relative clauses in Japanese, with reference to Korean. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 4(1): 29–58. doi: 10.1007/BF01720745.
Kawahara, Koji. 2009. Standards of comparison in Japanese. In Proceedings of the 5th workshop on altaic in formal linguistics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.
Kennedy, Christopher. 1999. Projecting the adjective: The syntax and semantics of gradability and comparison. New York: Garland Press.
Kennedy, Christopher. 2009. Modes of comparison. In Proceedings of Chicago Linguistic Society 43.
Kennedy, Christopher, and Jason Merchant. 2000. Attributive comparative deletion. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18(1): 89–146. doi: 10.1023/A:1006362716348.
Kikuchi, Akira. 1987. Comparative deletion in Japanese. ms., Yamagata University.
Klein, Ewan. 1991. Comparatives. In Semantik: Ein internationales Handbuch der zeitgenössischen Forschung, eds. Arnim von Stechow and Dieter Wunderlich, 673–691. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Kotek, Hadas, Yasutada Sudo, Edwin Howard, and Martin Hackl. 2011. Three readings of most. In Proceedings of SALT 21, 353–372.
Krasikova Sveta. (2008) Quantifiers in comparatives. In Proceedings of SuB 12: 337–352
Lechner, Winfried. (2001) Reduced and phrasal comparatives.. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19(4): 683–735. doi:10.1023/A:1013378908052
Lechner, Winfried. 2004. Ellipsis in comparatives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lechner, Winfried. 2008. On binding scope and ellipsis scope. In Topics in Ellipsis, ed. Kyle Johnson, 154–182. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maki, Hideki, and Asako Uchibori. 2008. Ga/No conversion. In The Oxford handbook of japanese linguistics, eds. Shigeru Miyagawa and Mamoru Saito. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Marantz, Alec. 2001. Words. Handout of the talk given at WCCFL 20.
Merchant, Jason. 2008. An asymmetry in voice mismatches in VP-ellipsis and pseudogapping. Linguistic Inquiry 39(1): 169–179. doi: 10.1162/ling.2008.39.1.169.
Merchant, Jason. 2009. Phrasal and clausal comparatives in Greek and the abstractness of syntax. Journal of Greek Linguistics 9(1): 134–164. doi: 10.1163/156658409X12500896406005.
Murasugi, Keiko. 1991. Noun phrases in Japanese and English: A study in syntax, learnability and acquisition. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Nambu Satoshi. (2007) Reconsideration of ga/no conversion based on a quantitative analysis. Gengo Kenkyu 131: 115–149
Ochi, Masao. 2001. Move F and ga/no conversion in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 10(3): 247–286. doi: 10.1023/A:1011224313676.
Oda, Toshiko. 2008. Degree constructions in Japanese. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Ogawa, Yoshiki. 2004. The simple present tense in Japanese and the phonetically empty universal quantifier. Exploration in English Linguistics 19.
Pancheva Roumyana. (2006) Phrasal and clausal comparatives in Slavic. In Proceedings of FASL 14: 236–257
Pancheva, Roumyana. 2007. Than. Paper presented at GLOW XXX, the University of Tromsø .
Pancheva, Roumyana. 2010. More students attended FASL than CONSOLE. In Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 18: The Cornell Meeting, 2009, eds. W. Browne, A. Cooper, A. Fisher, E. Kesici, N. Predolac and D. Zec, 383–400. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications.
Pinkal, Manfred. 1990. On the logical structure of comparatives. In Natural language and logic: Lecture notes in artificial intelligence, ed. R. Studer, 147–167. Berlin: Springer.
Ross, John. 1964. A partial grammar of English superlatives. MA thesis, Uniersity of Pennsylvania.
Rullmann, Hotze. 1995. Maximality in the semantics of Wh-constructions. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Sag, Ivan. 1976. Deletion and logical form. Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Shimoyama Junko. (1999) Internally headed relative clauses in Japanese and E-type anaphora. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 8: 147–182. doi:10.1023/A:1008338020411
Shimoyama Junko. (2006) Indeterminate phrase quantification in Japanese. Natural Language Semantics 14(2): 139–173. doi:10.1007/s11050-006-0001-5
Shimoyama Junko. (2012) Reassessing crosslinguistic variation in clausal comparatives. Natural Language Semantics 20(1): 83–113. doi:10.1007/s11050-011-9076-8
Snyder, William, Kenneth Wexler, and Dolon Das. 1994. The syntactic representation of degree and quantity: Perspectives from Japanese and Child English. In Proceedings of WCCFL 13, 581–596.
von Stechow, Arnim. 1984. Comparing semantic theories of comparison. Journal of Semantics 3: 1–77.
Sudo, Yasutada. 2009. Invisible degree nominals in Japanese clausal comparatives. In Proceedings of the 5th workshop on altaic in formal linguistics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.
Szabolcsi, Anna. 1986. Comaprative superlatives. In Papers in theoretical linguistics, eds. Fukui Naoki, Tova Rapoport, and Elizabeth Sagey, 245–266. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.
Ueyama Ayumi. (2004) Nihongo no hikaku koobun ni tuiteno itikoosatu. Bungaku Kenkyuoku 101: 45–67
Watanabe Akira. (1996) Nominative-genitive conversion and agreemnet in Japanese: A cross-linguistic perspective. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 5(4): 373–410. doi:10.1007/BF00132699
Watanabe Akira. (2011) Adjectival inflection and the position of measure phrases. Linguistic Inquiry 42(3): 490–507. doi:10.1162/LING_a_00055
Wunderlich, Dieter. 2001. Two comparatives. In Perspectives on semantics, pragmatics, and discourse: A Festschrift for Ferenc Kiefer, eds. István Kenesei and Robert M. Harnish, 75–91. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Sudo, Y. Hidden nominal structures in Japanese clausal comparatives. J East Asian Linguist 24, 1–51 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-014-9125-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-014-9125-7