6/13/2008
Yuhara 2008 Chicago Dissertation
Title: A Multimodular Approach to Case Assignment in Japanese: A Study of Complex and Stative Predicates.
Author: Ichiro Yuhara
Advisor: Jerrold M. Sadock (Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor)
Additional Committee Members: Amy Dahlstrom (Associate Professor), Jason Merchant (Associate Professor)
I propose that the distribution of morphological case particles is a function of corresponding rules, which hierarchically relate overt nominal expressions to participant roles and arguments across distinct grammatical modules. The main components of the dissertation (Chapters 3 and 4) are thus intended to develop a non-derivational, constraint-based case system that generates the canonical case arrays in Japanese and at the same time also regulates theoretical possibilities that are non-existent in reality.
In a detailed comparison of the standard analyses in derivational theories, I also question strong “isomorphism” between levels of representation and the validity of dichotomic theoretical concepts such as syntax-lexicon, subject-object, transitive-intransitive, biclausal-monoclausal, and unergative-unaccusative, which are arguably based on the structure of Modern English. In my view, uncritical or unwitting applications of them to various syntactic phenomena of Japanese have greatly distorted the logic of the language and/or complicated the resulting analyses. This dissertation claims that by untangling many complexities in syntax and placing them into the right grammatical components, it should be possible to argue that such complexities arise from the interaction of fairly simple mechanisms in language, which are totally autonomous of each other.
Advisor: Jerrold M. Sadock (Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor)
Additional Committee Members: Amy Dahlstrom (Associate Professor), Jason Merchant (Associate Professor)
ABSTRACT
The primary goal of my dissertation is to challenge “syntactocentrism” in mainstream generative grammar and alternatively to advance a multimodular view of analysis that de-synthesizes much of explanatory role attributed to syntax as empirically more successful and conceptually more reasonable. With particular reference to various morphological case manifestations in Japanese complex and stative predicates, this dissertation argues for a parallel grammatical architecture, sketched in Sadock (1985, 1991) and Jackendoff (1997, 2002), in which participant role structure (cf., D-Structure) and function-argument structure (cf., LF) (among others) stand on equal footing with syntactic structure (cf., S-Structure).
I propose that the distribution of morphological case particles is a function of corresponding rules, which hierarchically relate overt nominal expressions to participant roles and arguments across distinct grammatical modules. The main components of the dissertation (Chapters 3 and 4) are thus intended to develop a non-derivational, constraint-based case system that generates the canonical case arrays in Japanese and at the same time also regulates theoretical possibilities that are non-existent in reality.In a detailed comparison of the standard analyses in derivational theories, I also question strong “isomorphism” between levels of representation and the validity of dichotomic theoretical concepts such as syntax-lexicon, subject-object, transitive-intransitive, biclausal-monoclausal, and unergative-unaccusative, which are arguably based on the structure of Modern English. In my view, uncritical or unwitting applications of them to various syntactic phenomena of Japanese have greatly distorted the logic of the language and/or complicated the resulting analyses. This dissertation claims that by untangling many complexities in syntax and placing them into the right grammatical components, it should be possible to argue that such complexities arise from the interaction of fairly simple mechanisms in language, which are totally autonomous of each other.
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