In the current Government and Binding framework, every sentence must have a subject. When the matrix subject position is non-thematic, it is filled by an expletive. Japanese, however, lacks an overt expletive. This raises the question of whether the language has an expletive which is null, or raises an embedded subject to the matrix subject…

This paper reconsiders Chomsky's Adjunction Condition and suggests some modification of the theory of barriers to solve problems arising mainly from the improper definition of the blocking category and the barrier. It is argued that in S-structure, there is no adjunction in movement except extraposition and topicalization. First, it is suggested…

Virtually all scholars working on Numic languages have called [r] a spirant or listed it, without comment, as resulting from spirantization. However, Central Numic shows that [r] results from an early rule of tap formation applying to /t/, with subsequent application of spirantization then affecting other stops. When this analysis is extended to…

In this article, characteristics of Japanese causative constructions are reviewed and discussed based on an article by Masayoshi Shibatani (1976), who has worked extensively with the Japanese causative. First, the nature and definitions of the causative are discussed. Then, the types of Japanese causative are presented; finally, a categorization…

Gemination in Pulaar, a dialect of Fula, does not always follow typically known gemination processes and previous attempts to analyze Pulaar gemination processes have been unsatisfactory. The proposed analyses fail to account for numerous exceptions and do not provide a comprehensive analysis of all gemination processes in Pulaar. In this paper,…

The predominant view of the binding facts of the Japanese reflexive "zibun" is that there are two types of uses; one is as a reflexive that is to be bound by the clause-mate subject, and the other is as the so-called "logophoric" pronoun. Accordingly, the binding theory of "zibun" along the lines of this view will…

This paper proposes an explanation for the limited possibilities of realized conjunctions in multitermed coordinations. It argues that conjunction "&" heads a fully articulated phrase (&P), which can iterate &P shells, similar to "V" in Larson's (1988) VP-shell hypothesis. This structure enables a single & to unify any number of conjuncts, and…

This paper presents an alternative analysis of tough constructions for N. Chomsky's 1981 wh-movement analysis of tough constructions. To replace Chomsky's solution and to obviate the need for generalized transformations in Government-Binding (GB) theory, an alternative analysis is proposed in which the tough subject originates as an embedded…

Recent work in language and text has explored such broad functional categories as evidentiality and affect, and has examined their cross-linguistic occurrences and manifestations. This paper focuses on a single construction, explores its variations, and describes and explains its pragmatic and textual functions. This rare construction, exemplified…

This paper studies the semantic properties of a reciprocal construction in Taiwanese. Specific focus is on the real-world situations that this reciprocal construction may encode. First, the syntactic properties of the reciprocal construction "xiou"-V in Taiwanese, which are different from these in English, are analyzed. Next, various…

St. Clair's Comanche texts, collected in 1902, appear to exhibit a very uncharacteristic form of objective case marking along with "same subject" dependent clause types unknown elsewhere in the language. Proper interpretation of the materials and the circumstances in which they were transcribed leads to an analysis in which…

This paper examines spatial deixis in Chiwere (Siouan) in the framework of two theories of deixis. Denny (1978) attempts to define a set of distinctive features for spatial deixis, while Rauh (1983) uses spatial deixis as a template for organizing all deictic dimensions. Chiwere data suggest language and dimension specific expansion of both…

Proto-Algonquian had six or seven orders (morphological types) of verbs. The potential order had three modes, the subordinative two, and by one interpretation, the conjunct had four. By another, all conjuncts are participles in the protolanguage. Evidentials include an attestive suppositive dubitative, and perhaps a recollective. Only a few…

This paper argues that Mandarin Chinese has a fixed syllabic represented by the template CGVX, with one slot in the onset and three slots in the rimeprime (as projection of the rime). It claims that the pre-nucleus glide is obligatory, is an independent constituent, and is adjoined to the rime constituent. Extensive evidence for this template is…

This paper argues that the Korean particles "-to" and "-na" can be analyzed as having one core meaning with their own accompanying meanings due to illocutionary forces or to people's world-knowledge on orderings among the elements of alternative sets. It also maintains that both the incompatibility of "amwu" ('any')…