The two conditionals 'to' and '-tara' in Japanese do not carry neutral connotations. This paper offers evidence to support the claim that '-tara' can carry, among other things, a connotation of surprise in reference to specific past events. However, evidence is also offered to show that the conditional 'to,' contrary to what is stated in most…

This study extends Safir's (1987) analysis of Noun Phrase (NP) Predication. It argues that, for NPs to function predicationally, they must satisfy not only Safir's Predicate Principle, but also the Predicate Condition (a condition which requires NP predicates to be fully saturated.) (Contains 16 references.) (Author)

In the current Government and Binding framework, every sentence must have a subject. When the matrix subject position is non-thematic, it is filled by an expletive. Japanese, however, lacks an overt expletive. This raises the question of whether the language has an expletive which is null, or raises an embedded subject to the matrix subject…

This paper reconsiders Chomsky's Adjunction Condition and suggests some modification of the theory of barriers to solve problems arising mainly from the improper definition of the blocking category and the barrier. It is argued that in S-structure, there is no adjunction in movement except extraposition and topicalization. First, it is suggested…

In this article, characteristics of Japanese causative constructions are reviewed and discussed based on an article by Masayoshi Shibatani (1976), who has worked extensively with the Japanese causative. First, the nature and definitions of the causative are discussed. Then, the types of Japanese causative are presented; finally, a categorization…

The predominant view of the binding facts of the Japanese reflexive "zibun" is that there are two types of uses; one is as a reflexive that is to be bound by the clause-mate subject, and the other is as the so-called "logophoric" pronoun. Accordingly, the binding theory of "zibun" along the lines of this view will…

Like many other languages, Hualapai employs the reflexive suffix for several different grammatical purposes. Unlike those languages, however, constructions with a reflexive marker in Hualapai are usually not ambiguous with respect to the expected meanings. This paper identifies four functions that the reflexive suffix may have: reflexive,…

This paper presents an alternative analysis of tough constructions for N. Chomsky's 1981 wh-movement analysis of tough constructions. To replace Chomsky's solution and to obviate the need for generalized transformations in Government-Binding (GB) theory, an alternative analysis is proposed in which the tough subject originates as an embedded…

Recent work in language and text has explored such broad functional categories as evidentiality and affect, and has examined their cross-linguistic occurrences and manifestations. This paper focuses on a single construction, explores its variations, and describes and explains its pragmatic and textual functions. This rare construction, exemplified…

To the synchronic linguistic analyst, an idiom is, by nature, semantically noncompositional. However, the language-user-in-culture may know (among other things) how the association between the non-literal and the literal meanings of an idiom is culturally motivated. This paper looks at such cultural knowledge of idiomaticity, with evidence for…

This paper argues that a domain-based approach can be used to explain the complex tonal structure of Xhosa nouns by means of a single H tone spread rule. The argument proposes an H tone-motivated domain structure for every noun type, referred to as Tone Domains (TDs), with the number of TDs determined by the number of lexical H tones in a given…

This paper studies the semantic properties of a reciprocal construction in Taiwanese. Specific focus is on the real-world situations that this reciprocal construction may encode. First, the syntactic properties of the reciprocal construction "xiou"-V in Taiwanese, which are different from these in English, are analyzed. Next, various…

The question of how 'communication' is metaphorized in Japanese is examined and this metaphorization is contrasted with Reddy's (1979) conduit metaphor. A claim is made that there is a strong tendency for Japanese to conceptualize 'word' as 'fluid' and to fuse 'word' and 'meaning.' English, which unlike Japanese, has overt count/mass and…

This paper examines spatial deixis in Chiwere (Siouan) in the framework of two theories of deixis. Denny (1978) attempts to define a set of distinctive features for spatial deixis, while Rauh (1983) uses spatial deixis as a template for organizing all deictic dimensions. Chiwere data suggest language and dimension specific expansion of both…

This paper argues that the Korean particles "-to" and "-na" can be analyzed as having one core meaning with their own accompanying meanings due to illocutionary forces or to people's world-knowledge on orderings among the elements of alternative sets. It also maintains that both the incompatibility of "amwu" ('any')…