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 complicatedJapanese 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

NP P

N

toshokan de

VP

NP V

N

hon-o yomu

VP

PP V

NP P

N

toshokan de yomu

Syntactic Structures Phrase Structures

S

NP VP

N PP NP V

NP P AP 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 associate

d 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

B C

D E F G

A dominates B, C, D, E, F, GB dominates D, EC dominates F, G

A immediately dominates B, CB immediately dominates D, EC immediately dominates F, G

B and C are sistersD and E are sistersF and G are sisters

B c-commands C, F, GC c-commands B, D, E

Syntactic Structures Exercises: Illustrate the PS rules that generates t

he 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. SNP VP 2. NP N3. VP NP NP V

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

1. SNP VP 2. NP (S) N3. 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. SNP VP2. NP (Adj) N3. VP(S’) V4. 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, n

ominal 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 ma

de 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.