On the ga-marked subject: Its syntactic and semantic characteristics
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Kazuko Inoue
Abstract
According to Kayne's (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA) languages with configurational structures are expected to derive fixed word order. Hungarian is a typical example, deriving a fixed word order while retaining configurational structures. The moment Hungarian loses its configurational structure it yields free word order. This paper claims that there are languages with configurational structures, yet which allow free word order. Kuroda's dichotomy into “agreement forced and non-forced” languages accounts for this phenomenon. Agreement forced languages like English keep fixed word order, because the subject must occupy the position of the Specifier of Tense Phrase (TP-Spec) to get its features to agree with those of Tense in terms of person, number and gender. Agreement non-forced languages like Japanese allow any argument to fill the TP-Spec position, giving rise to free word order with configurational structures. Contrary to LCA, configurational structures do not necessarily result in fixed word order.
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Journal of Japanese Linguistics Vol. 26 (2010). Contents
- Yuki Kuroda, a personal recollection
- Thetic judgment as presentational
- Hypothesis testing in generative grammar: Evaluation of predicted schematic asymmetries
- On the ga-marked subject: Its syntactic and semantic characteristics
- Revisiting the two double-nominative constructions in Japanese
- On the nature of the complementizer to
Articles in the same Issue
- Journal of Japanese Linguistics Vol. 26 (2010). Contents
- Yuki Kuroda, a personal recollection
- Thetic judgment as presentational
- Hypothesis testing in generative grammar: Evaluation of predicted schematic asymmetries
- On the ga-marked subject: Its syntactic and semantic characteristics
- Revisiting the two double-nominative constructions in Japanese
- On the nature of the complementizer to
