A unified semantics for the Japanese Q-particle <i>ka</i> in indefinites, questions and disjunctions

要旨

This paper provides a compositional semantics for the Japanese Q-particle ka that properly accounts for its use in questions, indefinites and disjunctions in a unified fashion. Adopting the two-tier alternative semantics (Rooth 1985; Beck 2006), I will propose that the role of the ka-particle is always to project a set of alternatives introduced by the wh-item in the alternative-semantic dimension to the ordinary-semantic dimension (Kotek 2014). Unlike in previous analyses, I will adopt this semantics for the Q-particle not only for its clause-final use, but also for clause-internal use. Combining this with the cross-categorial existential closure, the analysis accounts for how the interpretation of a ka-ending phrase is conditioned by its syntactic environments. This mechanism enables an account of the previously unexplained parallelism between wh+ka and ka-disjunctions in their variability in interpretations.

主題