The Semantic Structure of Japanese Adjectives with -tai Derivational Suffix

Language, Information and Computation(PACLIC 11),1996, 157-166 THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF JAPANESE ADJECTIVES WITH -TAI DERIVATION AL SUFFIX AKIRA IKEYA TOYO GAKUEN' UNIVERSITY ikeya yk. rim. or. jp ABSTRACT This paper treats the Japanese adjective phrase forming derivational suffix -tai from a new point of view: firstly it tries to approach from a semantic standpoint by applying the proposal made in Ikeya (1991). It will be shown that adjective phrases formed by -tai fits nicely with the semantic structure proposed by Ikeya. Secondly, we attempt to ' derive ' -tai sentences, by adopting a basic framework of HPSG so that we can ' derive ' them without having recourse to transformational operations, that is, in a monostratal way. In tackling the problem we have tried to incorporate many ideas proposed so far on this issue. 1. Introduction In Japanese as well as in Korean there are such expressions as follows. (1) watasi wa ringo wo� tabetai (Japanese) I� Top. apple Obj. eat-want I want to eat apples. (2) na-nun sagwa rul mokkoship ta. (Korean) It should be noticed that -tai desirative, which is so called by Kuno (1973), is mainly used for the first person singular or plural as a subject. In addition to this expression, there are other expressions which are mainly used for the third person as a subject. (3) kare wa rongo wo tabe ta gatteiru (Japanese) he Top. apple Obj. eat want show the sign of He shows the sign of wanting to eat apples. (4) ku nun sagwa rul mokkoshi phohagoitta. (Korean ) In the tradition of Japanese linguistics the main interest has been mainly focused on the following issues. (a) How to derive the type of sentences like (3) from that of (1). (b) What is a relationship between the sentence (1) and (5) below, where nominative case ga is employed instead of wo ? That is, under what condition wo - ga alternation occurs. (5) watasi wa ringo ga tabetai I� Top. apple Nom. eat want I want to eat apples. (c) How to derive a sentence like (1) from a sentence like (6) below. (6) watasi wa ringo wo taberu. I� Top. apples Obj. eat So far no serious attempt has been made except Sugioka (1986) to treat -tai suffix as a complex adjective forming suffix by combining with an intransitive or a transitive verb and to make an inquiry into the semantic structure of such an adjective. 1. The Theoretical Framework 1.1. The Semantic Structure of Adjectives 1.1.1. Three Dimensions In English, as well as in Japanese or Korean, there is a group of the so called degree adjectives whose semantic meaning is greatly dependent on linguistic or non-- linguistic contexts. One such contextual factor is called Thematic Dimension by Bartsch (1986/ 87). In addition to this dimension, it was proposed in Ikeya (1991, 1992, 1996) that it is necessary to set up two other such dimensions, which are termed Comparative / Contrastive Dimension and Degree Dimension. Only after these three vectors …

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