Word-Order Variation

Abstract

In this book, I have presented a nontransformational analysis of Japanese, covering some of the major constructions in this language. In the traditional transformational analyses of Japanese, such familiar constructions as passives, causatives, reflexives, topicalized sentences, and relative clauses have often been used to show the effectiveness of the transformational approach. Since it has been demonstrated here that transformations are no longer indispensable for these constructions, transformational grammar will have to search other areas for support if it claims to be superior for the description of Japanese. On the other hand, as I mentioned in chapter 1, many recent dissertations on Japanese grammar put more emphasis on nontransformational components of the generative grammar, such as the lexicon, functional structure, or logical structure. If these trends indicate anything at all, the transformational approach at the current stage has very little to do with the description of Japanese.¹