Locative Postpositions and Conceptual Structure in Japanese

Locative Postpositions and Conceptual Structure in Japanese Akira Ohtani Faculty of Informatics, Osaka Gakuin University 2-36-1 Kishibe-minami, Suita-shi, Osaka, 564-8511, Japan ohtani@ogu.ac.jp Abstract This paper proposes two syntax-semantics correspondence rules which consistently ac- count for the distribution of Japanese loca- tive postpositions ni and de. We demon- strate how to adapt the machinery of the oc- currence of the postpositions based on the assumption of Conceptual Semantics (Jack- endoff, 1983; 1990; 1991) to fit the organi- zation of Japanese grammar. The correspon- dence rules correlate with semantic distinc- tion of verb classes: the semantic field dis- tinction between Spatial and Temporal with respect to the BE-function encoded in the lexical conceptual structure of several verbs. As a result, this paper elucidates the mech- anism of locative alternation of the verb aru ‘be’, which has not been fully explicated. 1 Introduction Japanese postpositions ni and de indicate loca- tions, which are exemplified below. (1) a. Kauntaa-no-ue-{ni/*de} bar-GEN-on gurasu-ga glass-NOM isaru. ‘There is a glass on the bar.’ b. Kauntaa-no-ue-{*ni/de} bar-GEN-on gurasu-ga glass-NOM subetta. slid ‘A glass slid on the bar.’ As shown in (1a) de cannot be used with the sta- tive verb aru ‘be’ to indicate a location where an object exists, and as shown in (1b) ni cannot oc- cur with non-stative verb suberu ‘slide’ which ex- presses motion of an object. It can be argued that ni indicates “location of a state”, while de indi- cates “location of an event or action”. However, the locational verb aru ‘be’ shows the following alternation between ni and de. (2) a. Kono This hoteru-{ni/*de} hotel-in hooru-ga hall-NOM isaru. ‘There is a hall in this hotel.’ b. Kono This hoteru-{*ni/de} hotel-in konsaato-ga concert-NOM isaru. ‘There is a concert in this hotel.’ Since the postposition de can be used with the sta- tive verb aru ‘be’ as shown in (2b), we cannot simply refer to the stative/non-stative distinction of the predicate involved in order to predict the distribution of ni and de. Although many descriptive and theoretical stud- ies have discussed the syntactic and semantic properties of these postpositions (e.g. Kageyama, 1974; Kamio, 1980; Martin, 1987; Moriyama, 1988; Nakau, 1994a; 1994b; 1995; 1998; Tera- mura, 1982, among others), none of them have fully accounted for the distribution of the postposi- tion ni and de and the semantic difference between them. In this paper we consider the semantic differ- ence between the two locative postpositions and give an account of the semantic structures for sen- tences involving locative ni- or de-phrases within the framework of Jackendoff’s (1983; 1990; 1991) Conceptual Semantics. 2 Distribution of Ni and De 2.1 Two Types of Location There are cases where ni can occur with a non- stative verb as in (3a), and de can appear with a stative verb as in (3b). PACLIC-27 382 Copyright 2013 by Akira Ohtani 27th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information, and Computation pages 382－389 (3) a. Kauntaa-no-naka-ni bar-GEN-inside baaten-ga barman-NOM tatta. stood ‘A barman stood inside the bar.’ b. Raunji-de-wa lounge-at-TOP biiru-no …

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