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Japanese Focus Particles at the Syntax-Semantics Interface

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Japanese Focus Particles at the Syntax-Semantics Interface JAPANESE FOCUS PARTICLES AT THE SYNTAX-SEMANTICS INTERFACE by YOKO FUTAGI A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Linguistics written under the direction of Veneeta Dayal and approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October, 2004 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Japanese Focus Particles at the Syntax-Semantics Interface by YOKO FUTAGI Dissertation Director: Veneeta Dayal This dissertation centers around the syntax and semantics of the so-called focus- sensitive particles (FSP) in Japanese, such as –dake ‘only’. The first part deals with the scope interaction between –dake and modals, which is affected by the order between P(ostposition) and -dake. I argue that –dake’s scope is determined by –dake’s morphological ambiguity between a noun and a particle. The particle –dake appears after P and must move at LF to the Spec of Particle Phrase above the modal; this results in the fixed wide-scope of –dake. The noun -dake is not subjected to this movement; its scope ambiguity results from the optional V-to-I raising, which, when it takes place, semantically lowers the modal into the scope of –dake. This proposal differs from the previous accounts, which attributed such scope ambiguity to Quantifier Raising or other similar mechanisms. The second part deals with the semantics/pragmatics of the Japanese FSP. First, the (in)compatibility between FSP and the topic-marker –wa is discussed. I propose a semantic/pragmatic account which uniformly explains the incompatibility between sae/mo/shika ‘even/also/except’ and –wa, and the compatibility between –dake and –wa. Then, the scalar implicatures of –dake and –wa are discussed. It is shown that the ii contribution made by the scalar implicature of each is independent from that of the other. A scalar semantics of –dake is suggested. The dissertation ends with a discussion of two related issues: the interaction between -dake and adverbs of quantification, and the difference among modals w.r.t. scope interaction with –dake. The issues explored in this dissertation raise interesting questions about the nature of scopal relations in so-called “rigid-scope” languages such as Japanese. The scope ambiguity between -dake and the modal defies this conventional categorization, and calls into question the notion of the “rigidity of scope”. They also contribute to our understanding of cross-linguistic variation in natural language by investigating the semantics and pragmatics of Japanese FSP which have uses that do not directly correspond to the English only, even, etc., as well as ones that do. A closer look into such variations will help to better understand the nature of the universal grammar. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude toward the many people who helped me manage not to lose sight of my goal throughout the long and winding road of the graduate school. First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Veneeta Dayal. There are great many things that I would like to thank her for; her patience, consideration, gentle nudging when I slowed down, and so on. But probably the kindest thing she did for me was not letting me give up when the going got really tough, and doing it not only as an advisor, but also as a friend. I not only greatly enjoyed working with Ken Safir thanks to his sense of humor, but also very much benefited from his vast knowledge of the linguistic literature. I am also very grateful to him for introducing me to the wonderful world of gardening, which really helped me keep my sanity. Roger Schwarzschild always amazed me with the amount of attention he gives to everything I wrote or said. With his quick grasp of what I was trying to say, or what I should have been trying to say, meeting with him was rather energy-consuming, but very helpful. Whatever the topic was, talking to him was always an enlightening experience. I am greatly indebted to Satoshi Tomioka. Without his comments on how my piece of Japanese data might contribute to the field, this dissertation would not have come into shape, at least not when it did. His explanations, suggestions and comments were always very clear and realistic, for which I am very grateful. iv I would also like to thank the linguistics professors at Rutgers, who always gave exciting classes and were ready to help: Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Maria Bittner, Viviane Déprez, Jane Grimshaw, Alan Prince, and Bruce Tesar. I would also like to thank Joanna Stoehr, who is the administrative assistant at the linguistics department. She is the most generous person I have ever known. I am grateful to Isaac Bejar and Paul Deane of Educational Testing Service for their understanding and support. Many thanks to Masaaki Fuji and Takeo Kurafuji for patiently providing me with Japanese judgments. Without the support and encouragements of my friends, I would never have made it through: Birgit Alber, Ania Lubowicz, Nicole Nelson, Ahmadu Kawu, Brenda Kennelly, Susanne Preuss, Vieri Samek-Lodovici, Anilkumar Sivakumaran, and Rong Yang, who made the linguistic department a great place to be; Ipsita Banerjee, Yu-Fang Chang, Yonghua Chen, Jeon Hong, and Konomi Kumasaka, who knew how to make one feel at home in a dorm; Darrel Hamlin, Alex and Lisa Kent, who offered help when I really needed it. I am also thankful to my friends at the office, who make my working days very much fun. Special thanks are due to Jennifer Minsky and Sarah Ohls, for cheerfully taking up the tedious task of adding pages-worth of a’s and the’s to this dissertation to make it more readable. Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank my family: my mother, for lots of things, but especially for teaching me the value of perseverance (or “stubbornness”, as she sometimes prefers to call it); my sister, who always knows how to make me laugh; and my niece, who smiles like the biggest sunflower in the world. Thank you! v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ iv Table of contents................................................................................................................ vi CHATPER 1: Introduction.............................................................................................. 1 1.1 General introduction........................................................................................... 1 1.2 Theoretical framework........................................................................................ 2 1.3 The map of the dissertation................................................................................. 3 1.4 Discussion: some implications of this study...................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2: QR-approach vs. non-QR approach ................................................... 11 2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 11 2.1.1 Three pieces of the puzzle......................................................................... 11 2.1.2 Particle ordering in Japanese .................................................................... 15 2.2 Standard QR...................................................................................................... 18 2.3 QR-approach..................................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Previous studies: Shoji (1986) and Harada and Noguchi (1992)............. 19 2.3.2 Universality of QR: Aoun and Li (1993)................................................. 25 2.3.2.1 Summary of the theory.......................................................................... 25 2.3.2.2 Japanese in Aoun and Li’s theory of QR.............................................. 29 2.3.2.3 Dake and modal in Aoun and Li’s theory of QR.................................. 31 2.4 A non-QR approach.......................................................................................... 35 2.4.1 Introduction............................................................................................... 35 2.4.2 Theoretical assumptions............................................................................ 35 2.4.3 Internal –dake: deriving the scope ambiguity.......................................... 38 2.4.3.1 Wide-scope ........................................................................................... 38 2.4.3.2 Narrow-scope........................................................................................ 41 2.4.4 External –dake .......................................................................................... 45 2.4.5 Assessing the non-QR approach ............................................................... 48 2.5 Summary of the two approaches....................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 3: A hybrid approach................................................................................ 55 3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 55 3.2 A blueprint for an ideal theory.........................................................................
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