(In)flexibility of Constituency in Japanese in Multi-Modal Categorial Grammar with Structured Phonology
Yūsuke Kubota · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · 2010
This dissertation proposes a theory of categorial grammar called Multi-Modal Categorial Grammar with Structured Phonology.The central feature that distinguishes this theory from the majority of contemporary syntactic theories is that it decouples (without completely segregating) two aspects of syntax-hierarchical organization (reflecting semantic combinatorics) and surface morpho-syntactic realization-which are conflated in the single notion of phrase structure in theories of syntax that take this notion as a primitive.In Chapter 2, I review three phenomena in Japanese-nonconstituent coordination, nonconstituent clefting and four kinds of complementation constructions-that present serious empirical challenges to previous models of generative syntax, whether transformational or nontransformational, and argue that all existing analyses of these constructions in these theories are inadequate.The problems of these previous approaches all stem from the fact that the empirical phenomena considered here constitute cases that deviate from what one might call the 'canonical' mode of phrasal composition, implicitly built into the notion of phrase structure, wherein the surface syntactic constituency transparently reflects the semantically-oriented combinatoric structure.In theories that take the notion of phrase structure as a primitive, such deviations can only be accommodated by means of some kind of extensions to the basic phrase structural component.However, such extensions are often This project would not have been possible without the help of many people.First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my advisor Carl Pollard.His insistence on formal rigor and explicitness has been literally indispensable for working out the foundations of the theory presented in this dissertation in the right way.The other committee members, Bob Levine and Etsuyo Yuasa, have also been extremely helpful.I'd like to thank Bob for his guidance at earlier stages of my graduate study as well: it was from him that I learned how to do syntax, how to think like a syntactician.I was very lucky to have Yuasa-sensei on my committee.She gave me the much needed comments on my dissertation from the viewpoint of an 'ordinary Japanese linguist', not specializing in categorial grammar (or logic or math).If this dissertation succeeds in introducing categorial grammar to (the majority of) syntacticians working in other theories and making them thinkthat there might at least be some merit in studying it, it is thoroughly thanks to her pointed and uncompromising comments.And all of the three committee members pushed me and pointed me toward the right direction when I was either confused, at a loss, or wrongheaded (or when all of these were simultaneously true of me).