The internal structure of quantified phrases, focus reading, and scrambling in Japanese
NAKAMURA Koichiro
Japanese allows the following QP structure types.
(1) a.Taro-wa hon-o 3-satu yon-da
T-Top book-Acc 3-CL read-Past
b. Taro-wa hon 3-satu-o yon-da
c. Taro-wa 3-satu-no hon-o yon-da
d. Taro-wa 3-satu hon-o yon-da.
The aim of this talk is to investigate how the internal structure of QP and QP scrambling interrelate and determine quantifier scope. Our claim here is, contrary to the widely held view, that QP scrambling has a kind of scope fixing effect, regardless of the internal structure of QPs. We further claim that QP scrambling can be seen as a focus movement. Namely, the focus interpretation of QPs is a result of the DO scrambling. This scrambling is a movement to Spec- F(ocus) P, which is above TP.
