Home When syntax and semantics of compounds matter to voicing alternations: an experimental investigation of effects of grammatical relation on rendaku
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

When syntax and semantics of compounds matter to voicing alternations: an experimental investigation of effects of grammatical relation on rendaku

  • Michiko Fukasawa EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 30, 2025
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

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).


Corresponding author: Michiko Fukasawa, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2500 Campus Rd, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA, E-mail:

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.

Appendices

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.Search 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_00261Search in Google Scholar

Daijirin. 1988. A Japanese dictionary. In Akira Matsumura (ed.). Tokyo: Sanseidō.Search 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.Search 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.Search in Google Scholar

Ito, Takane & Yoko Sugioka. 2003. Go no sikumi to gokeisei [The system of words and word-formation]. Tokyo: Kenkyusha.Search 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.10.1515/9783110854213.169Search in Google Scholar

Kageyama, Taro. 1993. Bunpō to gokeisei [Grammar and word formation]. Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobō.Search 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.Search 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.Search in Google Scholar

Kindaichi, H. 1976. Rendaku no kai [A solution to rendaku]. In Sophia linguisti-ca II, 1–22. Sophia University.Search in Google Scholar

Kōjien. 2018. A Japanese dictionary. In Izuru Shinmura (ed.). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Search 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.Search 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.Search in Google Scholar

Leben, Will. 1973. Suprasegmental phonology. MIT Doctoral dissertation.Search 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.Search 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.Search in Google Scholar

Nihon Kokugo Daijiten [Japanese dictionary]. Japan knowledge. Tokyo: Shōgakukan. https://japanknowledge.com/personal/.Search in Google Scholar

Okumura, Mitsuo. 1955. Rendaku. Kokugo-gaku jiten [the dictionary of Japanese language], 961–962. Tokyo: Kokugo Gakkai.Search in Google Scholar

Okumura, Mitsuo. 1984. Rendaku. Nihongo-gaku [A study of Japanese], vol. 3–5, 89–98. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin.Search 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.Search 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.Search 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).Search 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.Search 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.Search 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.Search in Google Scholar

Satō, Takeyoshi & Katsutoshi Yokosawa. 2018. Rendaku no sougouteki kenkyū [A general study of rendaku]. Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan.Search 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.Search in Google Scholar

Selkirk, Elizabeth. 1982. The syntax of words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1977. Grammatical relations and surface cases. Language 53. 789–809. https://doi.org/10.2307/412912.Search 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.240Search 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.10.1515/9783110197686.1.177Search 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.Search 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.156.11vanSearch in Google Scholar

Vance, Timothy J., Emiko Kaneko & Yasushi Watanabe. 2017. Rendaku no kenkyū [Research on rendaku]. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Search in Google Scholar

Yamaguchi, Kyoko. 2011. Accentedness and rendaku in Japanese deverbal compounds. Gengo Kenkyu 140. 117–133.Search 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.Search 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.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2023-10-31
Accepted: 2024-09-30
Published Online: 2025-10-30
Published in Print: 2025-11-25

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 28.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jjl-2025-2012/pdf
Scroll to top button