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The mechanism of inverted relativization in Japanese: A silent linker and inversion1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2012

KEN HIRAIWA
KEN HIRAIWA*
Affiliation:
Meiji Gakuin University
*
Author's address: 1-2-37 Shirokane-dai, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan108-8636hiraiwa@ltr.meijigakuin.ac.jp
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Abstract

Japanese has two peculiar types of relative clause (RC), No-RCs and De-RCs. In these types of relative clause, what looks like a (pivot) head noun appears at the left edge of the clause and is accompanied by no and de, respectively. This sharply contrasts with regular prenominal relative clauses in Japanese, which conform to the head-final word order pattern. The aim of this article is to investigate the syntax and semantics of these two types of relative clause in detail and reveal differences between them. Specifically, I will propose that (i) no in No-RCs is an appositive genitive particle licensed by a silent linker head, and (ii) de in De-RCs is a continuative/participial form of the copula da. Drawing a parallel with NP-no NP constructions and building on an idea from S.-Y. Kuroda's dissertation, it will be argued that No-RCs are derived by DP-internal inversion mediated by the linker. On the other hand, De-RCs will be shown to be relatives conjoined with the copula de. It will be further suggested that the fact that Korean and Mandarin Chinese lack equivalents of De-RCs is due to the absence of the appositive genitive particle and hence of DP-internal inversion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 345 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

[1]

I am deeply grateful to two anonymous JL referees for very helpful comments. This work is dedicated to the memory of S.-Y. Kuroda. The project reported here is partially funded by the Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (No. 22720168) for which I am very grateful. Thanks to Edith Aldridge, Tomo Fujii, Satoshi Kinsui, Akira Watanabe, John Whitman, and participants in the TCP Workshop 2010 (Keio University) and the 20th Japanese/Korean Linguistics (University of Oxford) as well as my graduate seminars at Meiji Gakuin University and Kwansei Gakuin University. I would like to thank Chung-hye Han and Heejeong Ko for Korean data, and Feng-Fan Hsieh for Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese data. I thank Adams Bodomo for kindly proofreading the manuscript. Finally, special thanks to Caroline Heycock and Ewa Jaworska for their kind editorial help.

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