A monosemy approach to the Japanese particle *no: Functional categories as linkers and antisymmetry in natural language.
Item
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Title
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A monosemy approach to the Japanese particle *no: Functional categories as linkers and antisymmetry in natural language.
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Identifier
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AAI9946184
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identifier
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9946184
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Creator
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Koike, Satoshi.
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Contributor
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Adviser: William McClure
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Date
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1999
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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In traditional grammars, the Japanese particle no is the genitive postposition, a pronominal particle, a (sentential) nominalizer and a (sentence-)final particle. Following the antisymmetry hypothesis of Kayne (1994) and assuming that Japanese is Spec-initial and head-inital, this thesis argues that all these uses can be synchronically reduced to a single source, i.e., no as a linker. Syntactically, no is a (nominal) functional category D like the structural Case-markers, ga (nominative) and o (accusative), and takes a nominal complement, DP, NP or CP. It is, however, being reanalyzed as an enclitic (the head of DP in Spec, DP) in some cases. Evidence for this historical transition comes from behaviors of descriptive genitives and the phonological process called "rendaku" or sequential voicing in compounds. Semantically, no has no referential meaning, but pragmatically, it behaves as a presupposition-marker and licenses NP deletion when it is not phonologically covert. The pronominal (thus referential) interpretation of no obtains when the empty complement of no (pro) has a (possible discourse) antecedent; otherwise it is a nominalizer. In discourse, it is used as a marker of backgrounding. Sentences nominalized with no, as in the case of the no-dalno-desu construction, can serve as presentational utterances, and in such uses no can function as a social indexical. Presupposition-marking of no is responsible for its uses as a modality marker, especially as an evidential. From its uses as a hedge it also derives its various characteristics as a discourse modality marker, marking indirectness, formality, politeness, etc., although its origin lies in its emphatic uses. An interesting consequence of our analyses is that it sheds light on seemingly unrelated phenomena in terms of interactions of linguistic modules under our hypothesis called the Relativized Modularity Hypothesis.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
