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Implicit Arguments in Japanese Potentials and Resultatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Wako Tawa  and
Mineharu Nakayama
Wako Tawa
Affiliation:
Amherst College
Mineharu Nakayama
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Abstract

Many, if not all, languages possess syntactic constructions in which covert arguments, often referred to as “implicit arguments”, are required. While the implicit arguments in Western languages have received considerable attention, the study of the same topic in non-Western languages such as Japanese has been neglected. In this article, the nature of the implicit arguments of the potential and resultative constructions in Japanese is investigated. A detailed examination reveals that the implicit AGENTs in these two constructions differ in terms of the specificity of their reference, which in turn suggests that the representations of the two types of implicit arguments reflect this difference. It is argued that the implicit AGENT of the potential construction should be analyzed as proarb while that of the resultative construction is realized as pro.

Résumé

Résumé

La majorité, sinon l’ensemble, des langues comportent des constructions syntaxiques dans lesquelles la présence d’arguments non-réalisés lexicalement, que l’on désigne souvent sous l’appellation «arguments implicites», est requise. Alors que l’étude des arguments implicites dans les langues occidentales a reçu une grande attention, celle de ce sujet dans les langues non-occidentales tel que le japonais a été négligée. Cet article se penche plus particulièrement sur l’étude de la nature des arguments implicites des constructions potentielles et résultatives du japonais. L’examen détaillé de ces constructions révèle que les AGENTs implicites de ces deux constructions diffèrent en termes de la spécificité de leur référence, ce qui à son tour suggère l’existence d’une différence dans la représentation de ces deux types d’arguments implicites. Il est argumenté que l’AGENT implicite de la construction potentielle devrait être analysé comme proarb alors que celui de la construction résultative se réalise comme pro.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 423 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1995

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