An Island Effect in Japanese

Author: Richards N.

Source: Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Volume 9, Number 2, April 2000 , pp. 187-205(19)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

In this paper I develop an argument for a pied-piping approach to the apparent absence of island effects in Japanese, along the lines of Nishigauchi (1986, 1990). The argument (first mentioned in Watanabe (1992b), crediting Mamoru Saito) has to do with the behavior of multiple wh-phrases in situ which are in an island; such wh-phrases must all take the same scope. On a covert pied-piping approach to island effects, the ban on distinct scopes follows straightforwardly; the island must be pied-piped to a scope position by the wh-phrases inside it, establishing the scope position for all of them. I show that the ban on distinct-scope readings does exhibit several properties of islands, including additional-wh effects. I then go on to investigate briefly the nature of pied-piping, developing a theory which accounts for the fact that wh- islands cannot be pied-piped.

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E39-245, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.; E-mail: norvin@mit.edu

Publication date: 2000-04-01