Predicate coordination and clause structure in Japanese

要旨

This article investigates properties of predicate coordination by means of sosite ‘and’ in Japanese. It points out that conjuncts of a sosite predicate coordination structure can contain nominative subjects but not tense morphemes. After establishing that the sosite predicate coordination construction is in fact a case of coordination (rather than subordination), several possible structural analyses of it are examined. It is shown that the analysis in which projections of vP are conjoined to be a complement of T is both empirically and theoretically most credible. The important implication of this conclusion is that subjects and verbs are (at least optionally) allowed to stay within projections of vP in overt syntax in Japanese. Morphological consideration is also given to interchange-ability of conjuncts.

主題