Da and the Zero Form as the Two Contracted Forms of the Japanese Copula

要旨

This paper investigates copular constructions with nominal predicates in Japanese. Assuming the principles of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz (1993)), it is claimed that the present tense form da is the morphologically contracted form of dearu, following Nishiyama (1999) and Watanabe (2011). Further, the zero form of the copula is taken into consideration, which previous researchers have not paid enough attention to. I propose that the zero form is another morphologically contracted form of dearu. The main finding of this paper is that a descriptive generalization is drawn by taking into account the zero form of the copula. Dearu can contract in all and only the contexts where both of the following conditions are met: (i)when it is used in indicative clauses, and (ii) when it is not used adnominally.

主題