Particle-Stranding Ellipsis in Japanese, Phase Theory, and the Privilege of the Root

要旨

This squib analyzes a type of ellipsis in Japanese, which I dub particle-stranding ellipsis (PSE). This elliptic pattern, first documented by Hattori (1949, 1960), has been discussed in subsequent work (Arita 2009, Hayashi 2001, Sato 2008, Sato and Ginsburg 2006, 2007, Vance 1993, Yoshida 2004) but has not received due attention in the literature. PSE is used as a truncated reply in colloquial dialogues, as shown in (1).1 In this dialogue, where Speaker A’s question introduces Tanaka as the topic of conversation, Speaker B’s response begins with the noncontrastive topic marker -wa.Rizzi (2005b) proposes within phase theory (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2004) that the edge of the root may remain unpronounced while still being accessible to semantic interpretation, and he applies this analysis (“the privilege of the root” (PoR)) to topic drop in German (Ross 1982). I propose that PSE instantiates the PoR phenomenon; it arises when the topmost phase head is spelled out at the end of the phase it defines, together with its complement, for phonetic interpretation at PF, while the entire structure is transferred to LF for semantic interpretation.Yoshida (2004) observes that PSE has three distributional properties. First, it can apply only to a sentence-initial topic, as the contrast between (2a) and (2b–c) shows.Second, PSE is a root phenomenon, as shown in (3a). (3a) becomes grammatical with Taroo-wa in the embedded CP, as in (3b). This minimal pair thus shows that (3a) is judged ungrammatical not because there is an embedded topic but because the embedded topic is null.Finally, PSE can occur only once in a clause, as shown by the contrast between (4a) and (4b).PSE is different from so-called argument ellipsis (AE) in Japanese (Kim 1999, Oku 1998, Saito 2004, 2007, Takahashi 2008) because AE exhibits none of the properties that characterize PSE. First, AE can target a non-sentence-initial element, as in (5b–c).Notice that the surface order in (5a–c) itself does not conclusively tell whether AE occurs in the positions indicated by Ø, because Japanese is a free-word-order language. Unless evidence to the contrary is presented, I simply assume that the ellipsis of an NP occurs in the surface positions it would occupy were it pronounced. Indeed, the variants of (5a–c) with an overt pronoun in the gap are grammatical, as shown in (6a–c).Second, AE is not a root phenomenon; it can occur in an embedded clause, as in (7).Finally, AE can occur more than once in a clause, as illustrated in (8).The distributional differences between PSE and AE therefore suggest that the former needs a different treatment from the latter (e.g., LF copy in Kim’s (1999) and Oku’s (1998) theory).Within the standard version of current phase theory (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2004), Spell-Out applies to the complement of a phase head. Rizzi (2005b) argues that the PoR phenomenon obtains when an element in the specifier of the topmost phase escapes Spell-Out. Consider how this theory applies to German topic drop, illustrated in (9b–c).In (9b–c), a topic moves overtly into Spec,Top. “Topic drop” arises when the phase head Top spells out its complement, leaving the topic inaccessible for pronunciation.As pointed out by Yoshida (2004), this construction exhibits the same patterns as PSE. First, it can only occur in the sentence-initial topic position, as illustrated in (10a–b).Second, as observed by Cardinaletti (1990) and Rizzi (1994, 2005a), German topic drop is a root phenomenon. A null topic cannot occur in an embedded clause even when it occupies the clause-initial topic position. This point is illustrated in (11a–b).Finally, German topic drop can occur only once in the root clause, as shown in (12).I propose within a minimum modification of the standard phase theory that PSE obtains when the phase head Top may optionally be sent to PF at the end of the phase it defines, together with its complement TP. This analysis is shown in (13) for Speaker B’s answer in (1).In (13), the non

主題