Chapter 8 On the forms of secondary predicates: A Japanese perspective

要旨

The present chapter shows that in Japanese, depictives derived from nouns have predicate structures comprising vP, which accommodates a PRO subject and an invisible copulative verb aru ‘be’. By contrast, adjectives and nominal adjectives, even if usable on depictive interpretation, count as adverbial modifiers (in syntactic terms), which do not include an invisible verb or PRO (due to the lack of vP projected over them). Further, resultatives are argued to have predicate structures comprising vP, which accommodates PRO as their invisible subject and an invisible change-of-state verb naru ‘become’ irrespective of whether they are constructed on nouns, adjectives, or nominal adjectives. The facts of subject honorification provide evidence that nouns are usable for constructing depictive predicates, but nominal adjectives and adjectives are not, whereas adjuncts derived from nouns, nominal adjectives, and adjectives can all be used as resultative predicates.

主題