Quantifier position in Japanese and the domain of specificity and indefiniteness

Abstract

It has been noted that the variation in syntactic positioning of quantity expressions in Japanese - the pre-nominal construction and the NP-external construction - reflects different referential domains of the quantified entities (Martin 1975, Inoue 1978, Okutsu 1986, Downing 1996). The distinction between definiteness/indefiniteness as well as the notion of specificity have been used to explain the behavioral patterns of quantity expressions. However, due to the lack of a clearly defined framework that illuminates the relationship between the two separate referential categories of definiteness/indefiniteness and specificity/non-specificity, previous studies could not offer a coherent account of why the two constructions sometimes yield contrasting definite and indefinite readings, sometimes become synonymous, and sometimes allow slight differences in nuance.

Using a framework that illuminates the relationship between the two referential categories, this study re-analyzes the observations made in previous studies and ascertains the referential characteristics of the two quantifier constructions. It suggests that the pre-nominal construction and NP-external construction do not express opposing domains of one referential category, but instead express one of the domains of two independent categories of referentiality, i.e. the domains of specificity and indefiniteness respectively. This study also discerns the referential meanings expressed by the constructions themselves from contextually derived meanings.