Lexicalization and morphological activation as criteria for Japanese compound verbs

要旨

The paper deals with Japanese complex predicates made of a Verbal Noun and the light verb suru ‘to do’. It tries to shed light on the question whether they should better be classified as lexicalized units rather than syntactic constructions on the one hand, and as compounds activated morphologically rather than syntactically on the other hand. It takes into account that suru-predicates appear essentially in two possible forms: (a) VN-suru and (b) VN-o suru (where -o is an accusative marker). A set of parameters is examined, leading to the conclusion that the two constructions are similar in taking an intermediate position between compound words and syntactic structures as concerns lexicalization, while being respectively closer to compounds activated morphologically (a) and syntactically (b). * 1. Light verb constructions in Japanese In today’s Japanese, the only productive process that can yield new verbs is a construction involving the light/support verb suru, roughly corresponding in meaning to English do, which can form complex predicates containing a so-called Verbal Noun (VN). 1 This can apply in two structurally different ways, both intermediate between

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