Morphologically Complex Predicates in Japanese and What They Tell Us About Grammar Architecture
Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics, (2001)Abstract
n this paper we take a fresh look at an old problem, the syntax and semantics of Japanese causatives. We demonstrate some seldom-noted similarities causatives bear to other Japanese morphologically complex predicates and argue why these similarities are important. Following a survey and critique of past analyses, we conclude that the principle of compositionality is at the root of the deficiencies of these analyses. We thus propose a modified, slightly noncompositional version of Manning et al.'s (1999) analysis, similar in spirit to Minimal Recursion Semantics (Copestake et al. 1995, 1999). We conclude with some discussion of possible replacements for compositionality.