BLS 33, No 1 2007. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v33i1.3525 (published by the Berkeley Linguistics Society and the Linguistic Society of America)

Object Case and Event Type: Accusative-Dative Object Case Alternation in Japanese* University of California, San Diego 0. Introduction –o–ni

Acc-Dat alternation the alternating verbs path goal durative instantaneous ni

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agenttheme unergative/unaccusative alternation

1. Three Contrasts that Accompany the Acc-Dat Alternation 1.1. Interpretation of Objects: , kaidan yane kaidan-o/#ni yane-#o/ni 1.2. Interpretation of Event Type: durative instantaneous kir yama-o/#ni kir # mountain-/

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kabin-o/#ni # vase-/

1.3. Interpretation of Subjects: agenttheme yuka-#o/ni # yakan-#o/ni ukkari # 1.4. Summary of the Alternations object’s role event type subject’s role Accusative case Dative case

2. The Acc-Dat Alternationis an Unergative/unaccusative Alternation unergative/unaccusative alternation

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takusan te-iru

2.1 Interpretation of takusan ‘a lot’ (Kageyama 1993) takusan takusan takusan takusan lot amount of the activities takusan lot amount of the activities quantity of the argument takusan takusan takusan takusan yama-o takusan amount of climbing yama-ni takusan quantity of the students amount of climbing

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takusan 2.2 Te-iru Construction (Kindaichi 1976, Jacobson 1997 among others) Te-iru progressive te-iru umare ik perfective perfective te-iru yama-o/ni progressive perfective te-iru te-iru 2.3 Stranded Numeral Quantifier Phrases (Miyagawa 1989)

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Gakuseii- 5-nini studenti 5-CLi Gakuseii 5-nini studenti 5- CLi V V V V V V V 5 !

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2.4 Summary 3. Proposal: Deriving the Alternation in Syntax

3.1 Unaccusative theme goal v nobor V V v V v V V

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v 3.2 Unergative v v v aspect phrase v V V v V v V vΘ V V V

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4. Supporting Arguments 4.1 Unaccusative-causative Alternation ore or vv v v 4.2 Passivization

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v v v 4.3 Dative Object Verbs awbutsukardekuwas - -

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5. Conclusion References Phases of Interpretation Functional projections: University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers WCCFL The Minimalist Program Ergativity v Aspectual Inquiries Ergativity in German Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure The Linguistics Review The Transitive Structure of Events in Japanese Directions in Functional Linguistics Bumpo to gokeisei Nihongo Dooshi no Asupekuto Functional Projections: University of MassachusettsOccasional

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Papers 17 Phrase Structure and the Lexicon. The Structure of Japanese NELS Unaccusativity: at the Syntax- Lexical Semantics Interface Linguistics Inquiry BLS Theoretical Linguistics Studies in Relational Gramma niLinguistics Syntax and SemanticsStudies in Transitivity Aspectual roles and the syntax-semantics interface Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics MIT Working Papers in Linguistics NESL Language The Linguistic Review BLS

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