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Argument Doubling in Japanese with VP-Internal Focus

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Perspectives on the Architecture and Acquisition of Syntax

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Abstract

This chapter builds on Kuroda’s (1988) observation that a Japanese sentence may contain, for example, two accusative theme arguments. It demonstrates that this kind of argument doubling is found extensively in the language and provides solid evidence against the θ-criterion, which implies that a thematic role can be assigned to only one argument. Then, it examines the conditions imposed on argument doubling. It argues that one of the doubled arguments must be construed as a focus and the other must serve to specify the set of alternatives for the focus. This requirement, it suggests, should ultimately be derived from Full Interpretation.

I am happy to contribute this paper to the volume in honor of Prof. Amritavalli, who has been a wonderful leader and has provided constant inspiration to the younger scholars in the linguistic community in Asia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    When the matrix predicate is individual level, the sentence-initial nominative phrase is interpreted as the focus, as shown in the translation of (3). This holds for the subsequent examples although I do not always indicate this in the translations. See Kuno (1973) and Heycock (2008) for detailed discussion on this interpretive property of matrix sentences with individual-level predicates.

  2. 2.

    The degraded status of (11a) indicates that there is a surface constraint against multiple occurrences of a postposition in a simple sentence, similar to the ban on multiple accusative and multiple dative phrases. I return to this in the following section.

  3. 3.

    This raises the question why argument doubling does not obtain in many languages, including English. Although I do not discuss this question in this chapter, a possible answer is given in Saito (2014). There, I mainly consider the major subject construction and argue that the labeling algorithm, in the sense of Chomsky (2013), accounts for why it is possible in Japanese and not in English. As far as I can see, the account extends to the cases of argument doubling discussed in this chapter.

  4. 4.

    An example of PP doubling is employed here because an NP topic may be licensed by the “aboutness” relation as Kuno (1973) demonstrates, and hence, it is not clear that it participates in argument doubling.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan

    Mamoru Saito

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  1. Mamoru Saito
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Correspondence to Mamoru Saito .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Gautam Sengupta

  2. Department of Linguistics and Contemporary English, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Shruti Sircar

  3. Department of Materials Development, Testing and Evaluation, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Madhavi Gayathri Raman

  4. Department of Computational Linguistics, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Rahul Balusu

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Saito, M. (2017). Argument Doubling in Japanese with VP-Internal Focus. In: Sengupta, G., Sircar, S., Raman, M., Balusu, R. (eds) Perspectives on the Architecture and Acquisition of Syntax. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4295-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4295-9_6

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