Japanese Syntax

Outline  Review of typological characteristics of JL  Syntactic Structures Syntactic Constituency Phrase Structures Phrase Structure Rules Notion of the Head Subcategorization Structural Relations

1. Taroo ga Hanako ni hon o yatta. 2. sono san-nin no ookina otoko 3. Taroo no hon

1. Taroo ga katta hon 2. Taroo ojisan 3. hijooni hayaku hashiru

1. ikenai 2. Taroo yori kashikoi 3. Taroo ga kita.  Taroo wa kita ka. 4. Taroo ga hon o katta.  Taroo ga nani o katta ka shiranai.

Syntactic Structures  Syntactic Constituency combination of words that are considered meaningful eg. Toshokan de fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon-wo yomu. Constituents:  fukuzatsu na nihongo, fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon, fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon wo yomu, hon wo yomu, nihongo no hon wo yomu

Syntactic Structures  fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon a. fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon b. fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon hon fukuzatsu na nihongo no fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon a.book about complicated Japanese b. a complicated Japanese book

Syntactic Structures  Phrase Structures lexical categories, phrasal categories NP NP N AP N A fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon NP AP NP A NP N N fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon

Syntactic Structures  Phrase Structures PP NPP N toshokan de VP NP V N hon-o yomu VP PP V NP P N toshokan de yomu

Syntactic Structures  Phrase Structures S NPVP NPPNPV NP PAP NP N A NP N N Watashi wa toshokan de fukuzatsu na nihongo no hon wo yomu

Syntactic Structures  Phrase Structure Rules a. Ane ga hon wo katta.  S  NP VP  NP  N  VP  NP V a. Ane ga katta hon wo yonda.  S  NP VP  NP1  ０  VP  NP V  NP2  S N b. Watashi wa sono hon wa takai to omotta.  S  NP VP  VP  (S ’ ) VP  S ’  S COMP

Syntactic Structures  Phrase Structure Rules generate unlimited number of grammatical sentences and phrases a. S  NP VP b. NP  (S) (NP) (AP) N c. VP  (S ’ ) (PP) (NP) V d. AP  (Adv) A e. PP  NP P

Syntactic Structures  Phrase Structure Rules a. S NP VP S N V NP VP N NP V N Ane-ga [ ] katta hon-wo yonda

Syntactic Structures  Head obligatory meaning associated with the head is always associated with the phrase  Subcategorization specifies the constituents that appears with the verb  Intransitive verbs: [___]  Transitive verbs: [NP ___] [PP ___]  Di-transitive verbs: [NP NP ___]

Syntactic Structures  Structural Relations Domination – downward path from a node at one level to a node at another level Immediate Domination – a node dominates another node and they are apart by one hierarchical level Sister Relation – two nodes sharing the same node that immediately dominates them C-command – (i) A and B do not dominate each other, (ii) the first branching node dominating A also dominates B

Syntactic Structures  Structural Relations A BC D E F G A dominates B, C, D, E, F, G B dominates D, E C dominates F, G A immediately dominates B, C B immediately dominates D, E C immediately dominates F, G B and C are sisters D and E are sisters F and G are sisters B c-commands C, F, G C c-commands B, D, E

Syntactic Structures  Exercises: Illustrate the PS rules that generates the sentences below. a. Iji-ga Kaye-ni hana-wo ageta. b. Pete-ga Jeva-ni okane wo karita. c. Divine-ga Mona-ga katta hon-wo Jhay-ni kashita. d. April-ga Mona-ga takai hon wo katta to itta.

 Iji-ga Kaye-ni hana-wo ageta.  Pete-ga Jeva-ni okane wo karita. 1. S  NP VP 2. NP  N 3. VP  NP NP V

 Divine-ga Mona-ga katta hon-wo Jhay-ni kashita. 1. S  NP VP 2. NP  (S) N 3. VP  NP NP V

Divine-ga Mona-ga katta hon-wo Jhay-ni kashita.

 April-ga Mona-ga takai hon wo katta to itta. 1. S  NP VP 2. NP  (Adj) N 3. VP  (S ’ ) V 4. S ’  S Comp

Transformations  D-structure, S-structure  Yes-No questions, WH-movement  Scrambling – reordering of pre-verbal major constituents; but the verb must not move from sentence-final position. Kita yo. Taroo ga.

Scrambling  Taroo ga Hanako ni sono hon wo yatta. a. Hanako ni Taroo ga sono hon wo yatta. b. Sono hon wo Taroo ga Hanako ni yatta. c. Hanako ni sono hon wo Taroo ga yatta. d. Sono hon wo Hanako ni Taroo ga yatta. e. Taroo ga sono hon wo Hanako ni yatta.

O, De, Ni  NP-o covering the entire dimension  NP-ni NP is the goal  NP-de location

Made, Made ni, Made de  Made continuously/until X  Made ni limit of a domain, X being the end/limit  Made de doing something continuously and then stopping at X

Wa and Ga  Thematic wa Old information Anaphoric vs. Definite  Contrastive wa

Wa and Ga  Descriptive ga subject of action verbs, existential verbs, adjectives/nominal adjectives that represent changing states  Exhaustive-listing ga  Objective ga object of stative verbals (transitive verbs, adjectives, nominal adjectives)

Wa and Ga in MNN  私は マイク・ミラーです。  桜は きれいです。  私は イタリア料理が 好きです。  机の 上に 写真が あります。  日本は物価が高い。  明日雨が降ると思います。  これはミラーさんが作ったケーキです。  図書館で本を借りるとき、カードが要ります。  山の上から町が見えます。  窓が閉まっています。

Passive constructions  E-ga doroboo-ni nusumareta.  Hanako ga tonari no gakusei ni piano wo asa made hikareta.  Taroo-ga dooryoo ni yotte hihansareta.  Direct Passives  Indirect Passives/ Adversative Passives  Ni-yotte passives

Causative constructions  Hanako-ga aruita.  Taroo-ga Hanako-wo arukaseta.  Taroo-ga Hanako-ni arukaseta.