The Mouton-NINJAL Library of Linguistics [MNLL]

Polarity (positive, negative) is one of the most fundamental concepts in the system of language and there are many expressions that are sensitive to polarity. For example, any in English and wh-mo in Japanese appear in negative contexts, but not in positive contexts. While previous studies have shown that polarity-sensitive expressions are a general phenomenon in languages, it has also become clear that there are variations in polarity-sensitive expressions. This volume explores the variations in polarity-sensitive expressions through comparisons between Japanese and other languages, such as English, German, Spanish, and Old Japanese, and examines the environments and contexts in which polarity-sensitive expressions occur, as well as the types of (cross-linguistic) variation allowed. The value of the present volume lies in its inclusion of research papers inquiring into various types of polarity-sensitive expressions, such as negative-, positive-, and discourse-sensitive polarity items as well as their variations. The research indicates new directions for the study of polarity-sensitive expressions in the fields of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics.

Issues in Japanese Psycholinguistics from Comparative Perspectives compiles over 30 state-of-the-art articles on Japanese psycholinguistics. It emphasizes the importance of using comparative perspectives when conducting psycholinguistic research. Psycholinguistic studies of Japanese have contributed greatly to the field from a cross-linguistic perspective. However, the target languages for comparison have been limited. Most research focuses on English and a few other typologically similar languages. As a result, many current theories of psycholinguistics fail to acknowledge the nature of ergative-absolutive and/or object-before-subject languages. The cross-linguistic approach is not the only method of comparison in psycholinguistics. Other prominent comparative aspects include comprehension vs. production, native speakers vs. second language learners, typical vs. aphasic language development. Many of these approaches are underrepresented in Japanese psycholinguistics.

The studies reported in the volumes attempt to bridge these gaps. Using various experimental and/or computational methods, they address issues of the universality/diversity of the human language and the nature of the relationship between human cognitive modules. Volume 2, Interaction Between Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Factors, provides studies on the interaction between linguistic and non-linguistic factors.

Issues in Japanese Psycholinguistics from Comparative Perspectives compiles over 30 state-of-the-art articles on Japanese psycholinguistics. It emphasizes the importance of using comparative perspectives when conducting psycholinguistic research. Psycholinguistic studies of Japanese have contributed greatly to the field from a cross-linguistic perspective. However, the target languages for comparison have been limited. Most research focuses on English and a few other typologically similar languages. As a result, many current theories of psycholinguistics fail to acknowledge the nature of ergative-absolutive and/or object-before-subject languages. The cross-linguistic approach is not the only method of comparison in psycholinguistics. Other prominent comparative aspects include comprehension vs. production, native speakers vs. second language learners, typical vs. aphasic language development. Many of these approaches are underrepresented in Japanese psycholinguistics.

The studies reported in the volumes attempt to bridge these gaps. Using various experimental and/or computational methods, they address issues of the universality/diversity of the human language and the nature of the relationship between human cognitive modules. Volume 1, Cross-Linguistic Studies, compares Japanese and other languages, including well-studied languages such as English, as well as lesser-studied languages such as Kaqchikel.

Benjamin Smith Lyman (1835–1920) was an American geologist and mining engineer who worked for the Japanese government as a foreign expert in the 1870s. He is famous among linguists for an article about a set of Japanese morphophonemic alternations known as rendaku (sometimes translated as “sequential voicing”). Lyman published this article in 1894, several years after he returned to the United States, and it contains a version of what linguists today call Lyman’s Law. This book includes a brief biography of Lyman and explains how an amateur linguist was able to make such a lasting contribution to the field. It also reproduces Lyman’s 1894 article as well as his earlier article on the pronunciation system of Japanese, each followed by extensive commentary. In addition, it offers an English translation of a thorough critique of Lyman’s 1894 article, published in 1910 by the prominent Japanese linguist Ogura Shinpei. Lyman’s work on rendaku included much more than just Lyman’s Law, and the final chapter of this book assesses all his proposals from the standpoint of a modern researcher.

The book demonstrates that it is possible to study the language faculty with the core scientific method, i.e., by deducing definite predictions from hypotheses and obtaining and replicating experimental results precisely in accordance with the predictions.

In light of the "reproducibility crisis" as extensively addressed in recent years in a number of fields, the demonstration that rigorous replication can be obtained in the study of the language faculty in terms of correlational and categorical predictions is particularly significant. While the claim has been made over the years that Chomsky’s research program is meant to be a scientific study of the language faculty, a conceptual and methodological articulation has never been made as to how we can accumulate our knowledge about the language faculty by the basic scientific method, including, most crucially, how exactly we can put our hypotheses to rigorous empirical and experimental test.

The book proposes how to do that by providing a conceptual basis for the methodology for language faculty science. The book also offers empirical demonstrations of the viability of the proposed methodology. The experiments were conducted with Japanese and English speakers.

Overall, the book explores new directions for the study of the mind.

How languages describe spatial motion events has been a hotly discussed topic in recent years in cognitive linguistics and linguistic typology. This two-volume book provides new descriptions and proposals on this fascinating topic, based on a large-scale experimental study of motion event descriptions in almost 20 languages across the globe as part of a research project conducted by NINJAL The chapters are based on papers presented at international conferences (most at NINJAL international symposium held in January 2019, some at International Cognitive Linguistics Conferences in 2017 and 2019). The book provides valuable descriptions of familiar and unfamiliar languages as well as insightful discussions of controversial issues based on those descriptions. This book would interest students in linguistics and cognitive science in Asia, Europe and North America.

How languages describe spatial motion events has been a hotly discussed topic in recent years in cognitive linguistics and linguistic typology. This two-volume book provides new descriptions and proposals on this fascinating topic, based on a large-scale experimental study of motion event descriptions in almost 20 languages across the globe as part of a research project conducted by NINJAL. The chapters are based on papers presented at international conferences (most at NINJAL international symposium held in January 2019, some at International Cognitive Linguistics Conferences in 2017 and 2019). This volume provides valuable descriptions of familiar and unfamiliar languages as well as insightful discussions of controversial issues based on those descriptions. This book would interest students in linguistics and cognitive science in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.