Japanese embedded questions are nominal

Evidence from quantificational variability effect

Bibliographic Data

ID21477253
AuthorsSatoshi Tomioka (0000-0001-7076-1508, University of Delaware, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume36
Issue1
Pages121-156
Publication date2020-05-27
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Japanese Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0197-3150 • E-ISSN: 2512-1413
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/jjl-2019-2020
OpenAlexW3016208886
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited16

The exhaustivity of an embedded interrogative sentence can be altered by the presence of an adverb in the matrix clause. This phenomenon, known as Quantificational Variability Effect (QVE), manifests itself in a peculiar way in Japanese. A QVE-inducing adverb can take the form of a numeral classifier that agrees with the embedded Wh-phrase. While a QVE-inducing numeral classifier appears to be associated with an embedded wh-phrase, it is not clear how such an association can be established. I argue that Japanese embedded questions are implicitly nominalized in the fashion similar to the internally-headed relative clause construction, and that the nominalized embedded questions are treated as concealed questions. The proposed analysis gives a very simple account for the puzzling QVE construction, as the floated quantifier structure with a concealed-question-denoting NP is commonplace. The paper examines a variety of phenomena, such as doubly headed relative clause structure and selectional restrictions on QVE, which support the nominal structure of Japanese embedded questions

Adverb · Interrogative · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Noun · Noun phrase · Numeral system · Phrase · Relative clause · Sentence · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence

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