The specificity and the constraints on NP-external placement of quantity expressions in Japanese

Abstract

It is generally agreed that, in Japanese, NP-external placement of quantity expressions (often referred to as ‘quantifier float’) can occur with noun phrases in the nominative and accusative cases and sometimes with ni-marked cases, and most of the accounts have been syntactically based. Interpreting approximate quantity as one of the indicators of a low degree of specificity (less commitment on the part of the speaker to refer to particular entities), this study examines these statements in a wider context of a correlation between a low degree of specificity and the permissibility of NP-external constructions occurring with noun phrases marked by ni and even other oblique cases. The study supports the validity of the hypothesis by examples found in a CD corpus and on the Internet and by the result of a large scale native speaker grammaticality test, suggesting that perception of grammaticality is sensitive to semantic factors such as the degree of specificity.