Abstract
This paper examines Japanese sequential voicing phenomenon, so-called rendaku from the perspective of syntax-morphophonology interface. In particular, how the nature of the relation between the first and second element (E1 and E2, respectively) of a compound affects rendaku in E2 in novel deverbal-noun compound formation is investigated. An experiment that examined the frequency of rendaku depending on the nature of E2 (existing vs. nonce) and the relationship between E1 and E2 (subject, indirect object, direct object, locative adjunct, and instrument adjunct) showed that, rendaku is significantly less frequent with a nonce E2, with direct objects than subjects, and with locative adjuncts than instrument adjuncts. Importantly, contrary to what previous studies predicted, argument-adjunct distinction did not hold a significant effect. These findings can be accounted for under the hypothesis that speakers have two competing motivations, to use the rendaku form and show the uniformness of a compound, or to use the non-rendaku form and keep E2 unchanged, and that rendaku is sensitive to different types of grammatical relations between components of a compound. (Areas of study: Experimental syntax, Phonology, Morphophonology).
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Shin Fukuda, Haruo Kubozono, Timothy J. Vance, and Tomokazu Koyanagi. The supports provided by Akari Ōba, Amber Camp, and Mitsuko Suzuki are also greatly appreciated.
All critical items in the experiment are available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qgB8M0itZ3zD8QxmXVLys5Bex9RH8bNp/view?usp=sharing.
References
Boleda, Gemma. 2020. Distributional semantics and linguistic theory. Annual Reviews of Linguistics 6. 213–234. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030303.Suche in Google Scholar
Boleda, Gemma & Aurélie Herbelot. 2016. Formal distributional semantics: Introduction to the special issue. Computational Linguistics 42(4). 619–635.10.1162/COLI_a_00261Suche in Google Scholar
Daijirin. 1988. A Japanese dictionary. In Akira Matsumura (ed.). Tokyo: Sanseidō.Suche in Google Scholar
Fukasawa, Michiko. 2020. Rendaku in the syntax-phonology interface: A corpus study on deverbal noun compounds. In Michael Barrie (ed.), Proceedings of the 27th Japanese/Korean linguistics conference. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Suche in Google Scholar
Ito, Junko & Armin Mester. 1998. Markedness and word structure: OCP effects and in Japanese. Rutgers optimality archive 255. Santa Cruz: University of California.Suche in Google Scholar
Ito, Takane & Yoko Sugioka. 2003. Go no sikumi to gokeisei [The system of words and word-formation]. Tokyo: Kenkyusha.Suche in Google Scholar
Kageyama, Taro. 1991. Light verb constructions and the syntax-morphology interface. In Heizo Nakajima (ed.), Current English linguistics in Japan, 169–205. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110854213.169Suche in Google Scholar
Kageyama, Taro. 1993. Bunpō to gokeisei [Grammar and word formation]. Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobō.Suche in Google Scholar
Kawahara, Shigeto. 2015. Can we use rendaku for phonological argumentation? Linguistic Vanguard 1(1). 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2015-0001.Suche in Google Scholar
Kawahara, Shigeto & Shin-Ichirō Sano. 2014. Identity avoidance and rendaku. In John Kingston, Claire Moore-Cantwell, Joe Pater & Robert Staubs (eds.), Proceedings of the 2013 annual meeting on phonology. NY: Linguistic Society of America.Suche in Google Scholar
Kindaichi, H. 1976. Rendaku no kai [A solution to rendaku]. In Sophia linguisti-ca II, 1–22. Sophia University.Suche in Google Scholar
Kōjien. 2018. A Japanese dictionary. In Izuru Shinmura (ed.). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Suche in Google Scholar
Kozman, Tam. 1998. The psychological status of syntactic constraints on rendaku. In Dvid Silva (ed.), Japanese/Korean linguistics, vol. 8, 107–120. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Suche in Google Scholar
Kuznetsova, A., P. B. Brockhoff & R. H. B. Christensen. 2017. lmerTest package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software 82(13). 1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13.Suche in Google Scholar
Leben, Will. 1973. Suprasegmental phonology. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Suche in Google Scholar
Lyman, Benjamin Smith. 1894. Change from surd to sonant in Japanese compounds. In Oriental Club of Philadelphia (ed.), A selection of the papers read before the oriental club of Philadelphia 1888–1894, 160–176. Boston: Ginn & Company.Suche in Google Scholar
Nakamura, Kumiko & Timothy J. Vance. 2002. Rendaku in N+V=N compounds: A production task. Paper presented at linguistics and phonetics 2002 (LP 2002), Urayasu.Suche in Google Scholar
Nihon Kokugo Daijiten [Japanese dictionary]. Japan knowledge. Tokyo: Shōgakukan. https://japanknowledge.com/personal/.Suche in Google Scholar
Okumura, Mitsuo. 1955. Rendaku. Kokugo-gaku jiten [the dictionary of Japanese language], 961–962. Tokyo: Kokugo Gakkai.Suche in Google Scholar
Okumura, Mitsuo. 1984. Rendaku. Nihongo-gaku [A study of Japanese], vol. 3–5, 89–98. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin.Suche in Google Scholar
Ōta, Satoshi. 2013. On the relationship between rendaku and accent. In Jeroen Weijer & Tetsuo Nishihara (ed.), Current issues in Japanese phonology: Segmental variation in Japanese, 63–87. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Suche in Google Scholar
Ōta, Satoshi & Katsuo Tamaoka. 2017. Rendaku to akusento – Futsū meishi to muimigo no bāi [rendaku and accent – cases in proper nouns and nonce words]. In Timothy J. Vance, Emiko Kaneko & Seishi Watanabe (eds.), Rendaku no kenkyū [Research on rendaku], 69–94. Tokyo: Kaitakusya.Suche in Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2022. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/ (accessed 1 April 2023).Suche in Google Scholar
Rice, Keren. 2011. Athapaskan: Slave. In Rochelle Lieber & Pavol Štekauer (eds.), The Oxford handbook of compounding, 864–907. Oxford Handbook Online. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/ 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199695720.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199695720.Suche in Google Scholar
Rosen, Eric. 2001. Phonological processes interacting with the lexicon: Variable and non-regular effects in Japanese phonology. University of British Columbia Doctoral dissertation.Suche in Google Scholar
Satō, Yamato. 1989. Fukugōgo ni okeru akusento kisoku to rendaku kisoku [rules of accent and rendaku in compounds]. In Miyoko Sugitō (ed.), Nihongo no onsei on’in jōkan [Japanese sound and phonetics: first volume], 233–265. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin.Suche in Google Scholar
Satō, Takeyoshi & Katsutoshi Yokosawa. 2018. Rendaku no sougouteki kenkyū [A general study of rendaku]. Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan.Suche in Google Scholar
Scalise, Sergio & Antonietta Bisetto. 2009. The classification of compounds. In Rochelle Lieber & Pavol Štekauer (eds.), The Oxford handbook of compounding, 34–53. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elizabeth. 1982. The syntax of words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1977. Grammatical relations and surface cases. Language 53. 789–809. https://doi.org/10.2307/412912.Suche in Google Scholar
Takamine, Kaori. 2017. The hierarchy of PPs in Japanese. Putting adpositions in place, 62–108. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/la.240Suche in Google Scholar
Takayama, Tomoaki. 2005. A survey of rendaku in loanwords. In Jeroen Weijer, Nanjo Kensuke & Tetsuo Nishihara (eds.), Voicing in Japanese, 177–190. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110197686.1.177Suche in Google Scholar
Vance, Timothy J. 1980. The psychological status of a constraint on Japanese consonant alternation. Linguistics 18. 245–267. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1980.18.3-4.245.Suche in Google Scholar
Vance, Timothy J. 2014. If rendaku isn’t a rule, what in the world is it? In Kaori Kabata & Tsuyoshi Ono (eds.), Usage-based approaches to Japanese grammar: Towards the understanding of human language, 137–152. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.156.11vanSuche in Google Scholar
Vance, Timothy J., Emiko Kaneko & Yasushi Watanabe. 2017. Rendaku no kenkyū [Research on rendaku]. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Suche in Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, Kyoko. 2011. Accentedness and rendaku in Japanese deverbal compounds. Gengo Kenkyu 140. 117–133.Suche in Google Scholar
Yumoto, Yoko. 2010. Variation in N-V compound verbs in Japanese. Lingua 120. 2388–2404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2010.04.004.Suche in Google Scholar
Yumoto, Yoko. 2014. “Meisi + dōsi” gata hukugōgo-ga zyutugomeisi-ni naru zyōken [the condition where “noun + verb” compounds become predicate nouns]. In Hideki Kishimoto & Yoko Yumoto (eds.), Fukuzatuzyutugo kenkyūno genzai [Current issues in complex predicate research], 179–203.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Advancements in Japanese linguistics: diverse perspectives
- Articles
- Stem inalterability in Japonic
- Restructuring and focus in Japanese
- When syntax and semantics of compounds matter to voicing alternations: an experimental investigation of effects of grammatical relation on rendaku
- Temporal dynamics of alignment: unveiling new semantic dimensions in interpreting the illocutionary particle ne in Japanese
- Discourse analysis of “just chatting” streams on YouTube live: focusing on the interaction between virtual YouTubers and viewers
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Advancements in Japanese linguistics: diverse perspectives
- Articles
- Stem inalterability in Japonic
- Restructuring and focus in Japanese
- When syntax and semantics of compounds matter to voicing alternations: an experimental investigation of effects of grammatical relation on rendaku
- Temporal dynamics of alignment: unveiling new semantic dimensions in interpreting the illocutionary particle ne in Japanese
- Discourse analysis of “just chatting” streams on YouTube live: focusing on the interaction between virtual YouTubers and viewers