Syntax and semantics of concealed causative constructions in Japanese.

摘要

This dissertation investigates syntax and semantics of concealed causative constructions in Japanese within the framework of Bittner's (1999b) dynamic cross-linguistic semantics. The concealed causative constructions we focus on consist of the internally headed relative clause construction (IHRC) and the sort-sensitive pronoun construction (SSPC).; In chapter 2 we argue that what I call the sort-sensitive pronoun (SSP) in Japanese shows a host of quite peculiar properties that the ordinary pronoun never shows.; In chapter 3 we compare the Japanese and the Navajo IHRCs, and show that the properties of the Japanese IHRC are in almost every respect distinct from those of the Navajo IHRC, which is known to be a type of restrictive relative clause. We further observe that the Japanese IHRC exhibits virtually the same semantic restrictions as those imposed on the SSPC.; Chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with previous analyses of the Japanese IHRC. We conclude that none of them can fully explain the syntactic and semantic peculiarities of the Japanese IHRC.; In chapter 6 we show that although the IHRC and the SSPC in Japanese look quite different at surface level, detailed investigation reveals striking similarities between them. Syntactically, they must contain exactly one SSP overtly or covertly, and they behave like sentential coordination. Semantically, they can be characterized by the direct cause condition, which says that the eventuality of the right conjunct must be the direct cause of the termination of the eventuality of the left conjunct.; To capture these unexpected similarities, we claim in chapter 6 that the IHRC and the SSPC in Japanese are two varieties of the same construction, i.e., the concealed causative construction. We argue that syntactically, both constructions function as sentential coordination at LF with the SSP in the right conjunct as the coordinator, and that semantically, the SSP in both constructions, when interpreted by dynamic cross-linguistic semantics, triggers a particular type-mismatch that can only be resolved by a causative type-lifting operator. We argue that this operator brings into the computation the directness of the termination that the direct cause condition tries to capture.