On the Event Structure of Indirect Passive in Japanese

On the Event Structure of Indirect Passive in Japanese Naoyuki ONO Tohoku University Kawauchi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8576, Japan nono@intcul.toholcu.ac.jp Abstract This paper presents an analysis of indirect passives in Japanese in terms of event structure and qualia structure proposed in the framework of the generative lexicon (Pustejovsky 1995). On the assumption that the event structure of the indirect passive construction is based on the causative structure, the present analysis accounts for the adversative interpretation of indirect passive sentences, the selection restriction on verbs, and the obligatory presence of the adjunct phrase. 1. Introduction Linguists normally assume that the active sentence in (1 a) and the passive sentence in (lb) designate the same situation, rejecting the idea that the active and passive sentences denote distinct events. (1) a. The assassin killed the senator. b. The senator was killed by the assassin. The situation described by the English active and passive sentences in (1) can be expressed as an active sentence and its passive counterpart in Japanese as shown below: (2) a. Ansatusha-ga giin-o korosita. assassin-Nom senator-Acc kill-past "The assassin killed the senator." b. Giin-ga ansatusha-ni koros-are-ta. senator-Nom assassin-by kill-pass.-past "The senator was killed by the assassin." Both of the active and passive sentences denote the same single event. Passive sentences of this type are called direct passives. Japanese has yet another type of passive sentences, called indirect passives. Indirect passives can be formed on the basis of either transitive or intransitive verbs. The sentence in (3b) is an example of the indirect passive based on the intransitive verb in (3a). (3) a. Kodomo-ga nai-ta. child-Nom cry-past "The child cried." b. Taroo-ga kodomo-ni nak-are-ta Taro-Nom child-by cry-pass.-past "Taro was adversely affected by the child's crying." The intransitive verb nak (cry) can be passivized as shown in (3b). The active and passive pair in (3) denote different situations. In the passive, a new participant (the syntactic subject) is added to the event denoted by the base verb. The sentence in (4b) is an instance of indirect passive based on a transitive verb. (4) a. Tonari-no gakusei-ga piano o asa made hiita. neighboring-Gen student-Nom piano-Acc morning-until played "The neighboring student played the piano until morning." b. Hanako-ga tonari-no gakusei-ni piano"-o asa-made hik-are-ta. Hanako-Nom neighboring-Gen student-by piano-Ace morning-until play-pass.-past "Hanako was adversely affected by the neighboring student's playing the piano until morning." The indirect passive sentence in (4b) contains the transitive verb hik (play). The object of the verb (the piano) remains in the passive. And the event denoted by the passive sentence involves an extra participant, represented as the syntactic subject, which is not originally involved in the event denoted by the transitive verb. The indirect passive generally has an adversative meaning. As indicated in the English glosses, the indirect passive sentences have an implication that the new subjects (Taroo in (3b) or Hanako in (4b)) are adversely affected by the evenst denoted by the active counterparts. Lexical semantic research in the last several decades has developed the idea that the meaning of a …

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