Negative polarity, A-movement, and clause architecture in Japanese

要旨

The main objective of this paper is to show that the syntactic behavior of negative polarity items (NPIs) allows us to assess whether or not an argument undergoes A-movement in Japanese. Japanese has two types of NPIs. One type of NPI, which is referred to as the 'argument modifier' type, is licensed with reference to the surface A-position of the argument which it modifies (i.e. this type of NPI is licensed in a position in which the argument appears after A-movement, if it applies) and the other, which is referred to as the 'floating modifier' type, can be licensed in the underlying theta-marking position where its host argument is first merged (i.e. the position before the host undergoes A-movement). Data regarding the two types of NPIs reveal that in Japanese, subject raising is conditioned by the property of tense (T): if T carries a Case feature to value the Case feature of a nominative argument, it also has an EPP feature to induce subject raising, but if T does not carry any Case feature, it does not have an EPP feature. The NPI data also show that in Japanese, negative nai is head-raised when it is associated with a predicate with some verbal properties.

主題