Cover not available
Part of
Current Issues in Syntactic Cartography: A crosslinguistic perspective
Edited by Fuzhen Si and Luigi Rizzi
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 267] 2021
► pp. 161–180

Chapter 8
Another argument for the differences among wa-marked phrases

| Meio University

The aim of this paper is to argue that the focal stress and structural position determine the interpretation of wa-marked phrases in a Japanese sentence. Namely, our argument is, based on, and extended out of Nakamura (2017: 356–359), that in sentence initial position, wa-marked phrases denote Thematic Topic (tt) or Contrastive Topic (ct). Besides, our claim is that within vP domain, focally-stressed wa-marked phrase, denoted here as wa-marked phrase, signals Contrastive Focus (cf). In (1a), wa-marked phrase denotes exhaustivity. On the other hand, wa-marked phrase in (1b), which occurs below the VP adverb majimeni (=seriously), signals contrast.

(1)
  1. Iya,
    no,
    demo
    but
    ano-ronbun-wa
    that paper-ei Focus
    Taro-ga
    T-Nom
    yon-da
    read-Past
    (yo).
    Par

    ‘Not, but Taro read that paper, and he read nothing more.’

  2. Majimeni
    seriously
    Taro-wa
    t-tt
    hon-4-satu-wa
    book-4-cl-cf
    yon-da
    read-Past

    ‘Taro seriously read the four books (, opposed to four papers).

Through the examples of the scopal interactions between negation, verbs and focus particles and wa-marked phrases, we demonstrate that the wa-marked phrase in vP domain denotes contrastive focus (cf). We go on to propose the following elaborated left peripheries for both CP and vP territories.

(2)

  1. [TopP [FocP [TopP [TP [ vP [VP ….]]]]]: CP periphery

  2. [TopP [FocP [TopP [ vP [VP ….]]]]: vP periphery

Keywords: wa-marked sentences, contrastive focus (cf), left periphery, CP periphery, vP periphery, Japanese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous analyses on the Japanese particle wa
  • 3.Japanese data
    • 3.1Types of adverbs and their structural positions
    • 3.2 wa-marked phrases and their structural positions
    • 3.3Scopal interactions between negation and wa-marked phrases
    • 3.4Scopal interactions between verbs and wa-marked phrases
    • 3.5Scopal interactions between focus particle and wa-marked phrases
    • 3.6Scopal interactions between DPs in DOC
  • 4.Hungarian and German data
    • 4.1Hungarian data
    • 4.2German data
  • 5.Elaborated left periphery in both CP and vP domains
  • 6.Conclusion, apparent problems, and theoretical implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 12 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.267.08nak
References
Belletti, Adriana
2001 ‘Inversion’ as focalization. In Inversion in Romance and the Theory of Universal Grammar, Aafke C. J. Hulk & Jean-Yves Pollock (eds), 60–90. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Belletii, Adriana
2004 Aspects of the Low IP area. In The Structure of CP and IP: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 2, Luigi Rizzi (ed.), 16–51. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Belletti, Adriana & Shlonsky, Ur
1995 The order of verbal complements: A comparative study. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 13: 489–526. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
1999 Adverbs and Functional Heads. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Endo, Yoshio
2007 Locality and Information Structure. A Cartographic Approach to Japanese. [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 116]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fujimaki, Kazuma
2009 On the relative structural position of high adverbs and the interpretation of Ga-marked subject. Paper Presented at the 139th Meeting of the Linguistic Society of Japan.
Haider, Hubert
2010 The Syntax of German. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hara, Yurie
2006 Grammar of Knowledge Representation. PhD dissertation, University of Delaware.Google Scholar
Heycock, Caroline
2008 Japanese -Wa, -Ga, and information structure. In The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Linguistics, Shigeru Miyagawa & Mamoru Saito (eds), 54–83. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Kamio, Akio
1977 Suuryoosi-no sintakkusu (Syntax of numeral quantifiers). Gengo 6(8): 83–91.Google Scholar
Kenesei, István
1998 Adjuncts and arguments in VP-focus in Hungarian. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 45: 61–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kiss, Katalin É.
1998 Identificational focus versus information focus. Language 74: 245–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Identificational focus revisited: The issue of exhaustivity. Paper Presented at CLS 50.
Kuno, Susumu
1973 The Structure of the Japanese Language. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kuroda, Shigeyuki
1965 Generative Grammatical Studies in the Japanese Language. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
2005 Focusing on the matter of topic: A study of Wa and Ga in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 14: 1–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Namura, Koichiro
2017 Japanese particle Wa with a focal stress provokes exhaustive identificational focus. In Studies on Syntactic Cartography: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Syntactic Cartography 2015, Fuzhen Si (ed.), 352–370. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Koichiro
2020 Types and functions of Wa-marked DPs and their structural distribution in a Japanese sentence. In Information Structural Perspectives on Discourse Particles [Studies in Language Companion Series 213], Pierre-Yves Modicom & Olivier Duplâtre (eds), 161–175. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Noda, Hisasi
1984 Fukusi-no Gozyun. Nihongo Kyooiku 52: 79–90.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Locality and left periphery. In Structures and Beyond, Adriana Belletti (ed.), 223–251. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Sano, Masaki
2006 Toritate-si o Meguru Ninka Zyooken to Kara-setu (Licensing conditions on the focus particles and kara-clause). Scientific Approaches to Language 5: 49–69.Google Scholar
Tomioka, Satoshi
2010 Contrastive topic operates on speech act. In Information Structure: Theoretical Typological, and Experimental Perspective, Malte Zimmermann & Caroline Féry (eds), 115–138. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2015 Embedded Wa-phrases, predication, and judgment theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 33: 267–305. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomoioka, Satoshi
2016 Information structure in Japanese. In The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure, Caroline Féry & Shinichiro Ishihara (eds), 753–773, Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Akira
2006 Functional projections of nominals in Japanese: Syntax of classifiers. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 24: 241–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar