Long-Distance Case-Assignment in Japanese and Its Dialectal Variation

In this paper it is demonstrated, through an empirically close scrutiny, that it should be appropriate to recognize that a certain vernacular of Kansai Japanese (what we call Dialect-A) allows a true instance of long-distance ECM (LD-ECM), in which neither the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC) effect nor the Defective Intervention Condition (DIC) effect is observable when the matrix verb assigns/values the Case of a DP within the embedded finite clause beyond another structurally intervening DP or beyond the finite clause boundary. Two theoretically significant problems are implicated in this construction: (I) Why is it that LD-ECM is allowed only in Dialect-A, whereas it is not allowed in the other dialects of Kansai Japanese or in Standard Japanese? And (II) what syntactic mechanism enables the LD-ECM construction in Dialect-A to evade the PIC and the DIC? For the sake of explanation, it is stipulated that there should be two interrelated grounds for the above problems: (A) Due to the special property of the complementizer in Dialect-A, the PIC is voided in the well-formed examples of the LD-ECM in Dialect-A; and (B) The definition of the DIC should be mildly diminished so as to incorporate Collins and Ura’s (2001) concept of Accessibility. Then, it is shown, with the aid of these stipulations, that the well-formedness of the LD-ECM in Dialect-A and its ill-formedness in Standard Japanese and in the other dialects of Kansai Japanese can be accounted for altogether in a coherent fashion under the current theory of Phase/Agree. Besides, a brief comment on the recent work concerning the phenomenon involving long-distance agreement is given at the end of the paper.

Three Interrogative Particles in Sentence-Final Positions in Jino

Jino is spoken by the Jino minority living in Xishuangbanna Autonomous State, Yunnan Province, China. It belongs to the Lolo-Burmese branch of the Tibeto-Burman family. This paper describes the alternations of the Jino interrogative particles -la⁴², -ȵa⁴² and -a⁴⁴. Previous works (e.g., Gai 1986) mention no such criteria. The analysis of my collected data concludes that the formal criteria and the semantic criteria interact to determine the occurrence of particles in interrogative sentences. The formal criteria for the occurrence of the particles follow:
(i) -la⁴² occurs in response to Yes-No questions.
(ii) -ȵa⁴² can follow the verbal predicate of Yes-No questions and Wh- questions.
(iii) -a⁴⁴ can follow the nominal predicate of Wh- questions.
However, -Ø can follow the nominal predicate of Wh- questions whose subject is khɔ³³su⁵⁵ "who," and can directly follow wh- words that are not interrogative pronouns. Under these two conditions, -a⁴⁴ basically cannot appear, though there are some exceptions. Furthermore, the following two semantic criteria constrain the occurrence of -la⁴² and -ȵa⁴² in the Yes-No questions:
(iv) If an inquiry concerning the entire sentence is being made, -la⁴² may occur.
(v) If an inquiry concerning only part of the sentence is being made, -ȵa⁴² may occur.

Wh-mo outside the Neg-c-command Domain

An indefinite expression such as dare-mo and nani-mo in Japanese requires the sentential negation (Neg) and gives rise to an interpretation with universal negation. In analogy to English any-, they have generally been treated as Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) and have been assumed to be in the c-command domain of Neg at LF, following Klima (1964).

Italian and Spanish have another kind of indefinites involving negation, e.g., nessuno in Italian, which is called Negative Concord Item (NCI). It has a sentential negative force, but induces a single negation even when it is 'doubled' with Neg. While the canceling of negative force is assumed to induce a single negation, it has not been specified which of the two negative forces gets canceled (Haegeman & Zanuttini (1998), among others). Recently, Watanabe (2004), assuming that dare-mo and nani-mo are NCIs, has argued that the negative force of Neg rather than that of NCI should be canceled in 'negative doubling' cases, concluding that NCIs are inherently negative, on the basis of the ellipsis data involving dare-mo/nani-mo.

In this paper I show that dare-mo/nani-mo cannot be c-commanded by Neg at LF and that they do not have a negative force, either, based on their interactions with XP-sika, another Neg-sensitive element in Japanese, and I conclude that neither the NPI-analysis nor the NCI-analysis is appropriate. I also point out problems with Watanabe's analysis of ellipsis, and argue that it cannot be maintained. Referring to dare-mo/nani-mo with or without a co-occurring case-marked N as wh-mo, and assuming that the entire phrase (e.g., gakusei-ga daremo) functions as an argument, I argue, based on how wh-mo interacts with XP-sika, that wh-mo has a universal force and therefore must c-command Neg at LF to induce universal negation.

Reconsideration of Ga/No Conversion Based on a Quantitative Analysis

The purpose of this article is first to verify the language change hypothesis of Harada (1971), but also to identify the factors which affect GNC. Taking advantage of previous research, I consider how potential factors affect GNC, and clarify the degree of their effects on GNC based on a quantitative analysis. The data used for this study comes from the Minutes of the Japanese Diet, and I use cross tabulations and logistic regression. The statistical analysis clarifies not only which factors affect GNC, but also provides values allowing a comparison of the degree of each effect. The result shows that there is an ongoing change in GNC -as hypothesized by Harada (1971)- where the use of no is decreasing in favor of ga. Finally the result shows that of 12 factors considered 9 have a statistically significant effect on GNC: birth year of Diet member, adjacency, transitivity restriction, animacy, predicate type, subject NP type, head noun, to yuu/to no clause, and no precedence environment.