Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Vol. 23

Michael Kenstowicz, Theodore Levin, and Ryo Masuda

Poster Papers

Deconstructing Clause Noun Modifying Constructions
Anna Bugaeva
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
John Whitman
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics / Cornell

Comrie (1996) and Matsumoto (1997) argue that in languages such as Japanese and Korean, relative clauses (RCs) and clausal noun complements (NCs) have the same structure. RCs in these and similar prehead relative languages are claimed not to obey island constraints, and to allow a very wide range of relations between the clause and head noun. We demonstrate that prehead RCs and NCs in Japanese, Korean, Ainu, Tundra Nenets, Turkic, and Sakha are systematically distinguished by phenomena such as agreement and N' pronominalization. The apparent violability of islands in these languages is due to independent phenomena, such as the existence of major subject constructions.

Two Types of Accusative Subjects in Japanese
Sayaka Goto
University of Maryland

In this paper, I show that Accusative subjects (AS) in Accusative subject constructions in Japanese behave differently depending on the predicate that takes the complement clause. The different behavior can be explained by the present proposal that there are two types of predicates, “think”-type predicates and “conclude”-type predicates, and an AS is base-generated in the embedded clause when the clause is selected by the former, whereas it is base-generated in the matrix clause when the clause is selected by the latter.

The Evolution of /r/ Final Verbs in Korean
Taewoo Kim
Seoul National University

The morpho-phonology of a language consists of a number of different layers reflecting the phonology of different periods. Most of the theoretical considerations regarding morpho-phonology attempt to account for the irregularities caused by this layering. In this paper I reject such theoretical approaches, and instead return to a historical approach in order to give a substantive explanation. The irregularity of Korean /r/-final verbs are analyzed in terms of a “timing gap” between the sound change and the morphological change.

When Months Are Numbered While Days Are Not: Korean Children's Acquisition of Time Words
Nian Liu
University of Oklahoma
Yu Kyoung Shin
Sogang University

In this study we show that Korean-speaking children acquire the numerical naming system of the months of the year (MOY) at an earlier stage than their mastering of the arbitrary naming system of the days of the week (DOW), despite the fact that MOY is of lower daily-use frequency. The result indicates that the use of pre-acquired simple numeric sequence in time words facilitates the early mastery of time concepts, providing support for the hypothesis that symbolic system (such as language) has an effect on children's acquisition of concept systems (such as time), even within a single language system.

Doubly-Oriented Secondary Predicates in Japanese
Mikinari Matsuoka
University of Yamanashi

The paper studies adjectival secondary predicates in Japanese that describe a personal taste of the referent of the object argument from the perspective of the subject argument, focusing on the question of how they are associated with the two arguments. By providing data indicating that these secondary predicates are generated in the complement domain of V, it is argued that they are construed with the object by forming a complex predicate with V. On the other hand, the secondary predicates are claimed to be connected to the subject by having a control relation via thematic roles.

Prosodic Focus and Nominative/Accusative Alternation in Japanese
Satoshi Nambu
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
Hyun Kyung Hwang
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics

This paper discusses a case alternation between nominative and accusative on objects in Japanese, particularly focusing on a relationship between adjacency and prosodic focus. After confirming the effect of adjacency between an object and its predicate, we conducted a perception experiment using varied prosodic contours that represent different focus positions. The results suggest that nominative objects were rated high when it receives prosodic focus. On the contrary, accusative objects were rated high when prosodic focus was on a preverbal element due to the default focus assignment.

Korean ECM Constructions and Cyclic Linearization
Dongwoo Park
University of Maryland, College Park

In this paper, I suggest that, under Fox and Pesetsky's (2005) Cyclic Linearization (CL), a FP must exist between vP and VP, and that FP provides a place for the shifted object, the accusative-marked ECM subject, and some manner adverbs. I also propose that the ECM subject moving out of embedded CP to an A-position in the matrix clause, must not pass through the embedded Spec, CP, which is explained by adopting CL, while rejecting the PIC. This circumvents improper movement that would be induced if the ECM subject moved to the matrix clause through the embedded Spec, CP.

Scope and Disjunction Feed an Even More Argument for Argument Ellipsis in Japanese
Yuta Sakamoto
University of Connecticut

In this paper, I provide novel data on null arguments in Japanese, and argue that they can only be handled by Oku's (1998) argument ellipsis. Specifically, I show that the interpretation produced by the interaction of null arguments with scope and disjunction favors the argument ellipsis analysis over the major alternative analyses such as Kuroda's (1965) empty pronoun analysis and Otani and Whitman's (1991) V-stranding VP-ellipsis, which seems to necessitate the availability of argument ellipsis in Japanese. Although null elements are difficult to investigate due to their emptiness, I provide some tools to investigate the nature of them.

A Feature Inheritance Approach Towards Head-Final Languages
Ji Young Shim
Université de Genève

The present study develops Chomsky's feature inheritance into a fullfledged system to account for language variation, and proposes that feature inheritance is regulated by two principles and governed by three operational rules, which are at play both in the C-T and the v-Asp domains. It will be shown that languages differ from one another with respect to EPP-specifications on the features on C and v, and feature valuation on C and v via feature inheritance accounts for the word order contrast between the head-final structure of Japanese and Korean and the head-initial structure of English.

How Differing Phonetic Realizations Influence Perception of Personal Characteristics: Speech Perception and Vowel Variations in Seoul Korean
So Young Yi
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

The current study aims to examine how people perceive speaker's personal cahracteristics depending on vowel variations in Seoul Korean. Thirty Seoul Korean speakers participated in the matched-guise test to evaluate 12 characteristics of each stimuli speaker. The results show that the raised variant [u] influences the way participants perceive some of the speaker's characteristics including sincerity, conservativeness, outgoingness, economic class, masculinity and cuteness. The different vowel variations also interact with speaker's age or listener's age. Moreoever, in addition to the vowel raising, speaker's age appears to be another crucial factor that affects listener's judgment.