Complex Predicates in Japanese: A Syntactic and Semantic Study of the Notion 'Word' (Japanese Linguistics) - Softcover

Matsumoto, Yo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1575860600 ISBN 13: 9781575860602

Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf, 1996

Synopsis

In this thoroughly revised version of a 1992 Stanford dissertation, the author presents an extensive discussion of Japanese complex predicates. A broad range of constructions and predicates are discussed, which include predicative complement constructions, light verbs, causative predicates, desiderative predicates, syntactic and lexical compound verbs, and complex motion predicates. A number of new interesting facts are uncovered, and detailed syntactic and semantic analyses are presented. On the basis of the analyses, the author argues that the notion 'word' must be relativised to at least three different senses: morphological, grammatical (functional), and semantic; and that this observation can be insightfully captured in the theory of Lexical-Functional Grammar. Previous proposals for each type of predicate that involve such mechanisms as argument transfer, incorporation, restructuring, etc. are thoroughly reviewed. Concrete proposals on the constraints on semantic wordhood are also made (an issue rarely discussed in the literature), drawing insights from cognitive linguistics.

About this title

About the Author

Yoshiko Matsumoto is associate professor of Japanese language and linguistics at Stanford University.

David Oshima is visiting assistant professor in the department of languages and literatures at Arizona State University.

Orrin Robinson is professor of German studies and director of the Introduction to the Humanities Program at Stanford University.

Peter Sells is professor of linguistics and Asian languages at Stanford University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1575860600
• ISBN 13: 9781575860602
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 359