Transitive adjectives in Japanese

This article is a descriptive study of the alternation between the nom-acc and the nom-nom sentence pattern with a class of adjectives in Japanese. The analysis of data collected online and through two surveys has revealed that (a) the alternation does not seem to be triggered by a single factor, but by a host of syntactic, lexical and pragmatic factors, and (b) the main consequence of the alternation is the restructuring of the paradigm consisting of the adjective, the morphologically related active verb form and the corresponding passive form, with the adjective coming to replace the active verb form.

Published online: 11 March 2009
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.108.13cal