N′-Ellipsis and the Structure of Noun Phrases in Chinese and Japanese

要旨

It has been widely assumed that noun phrases in Chinese and Japanese are similar in structure. They are N-final in surface word order, they employ “modifying markers” (de in Chinese and no in Japanese) extensively, and they require classifiers for numeral expressions. The chapter shows that, contrary to appearance, they have quite distinct structures. The chapter examines N′-ellipsis, reanalyzed as NP-ellipsis, in the two languages and present evidence for the hypothesis argued for by Andrew Simpson, among others, that Chinese noun phrases are head-initial. According to this hypothesis, de is D, and a classifier heads another projection within DP. Japanese noun phrases, on the other hand, are head-final. No is a contextual Case marker, and classifier phrases are adjuncts modifying nominal projections. The discussion shows that Richard Kayne’s LCA analysis of N-final relatives applies elegantly to Chinese but not to Japanese.

主題