Two Types of Complex Predicate Formation: Japanese Passive and Potential Verbs

Two Types of Complex Predicate Formation: Japanese Passive and Potential Verbs * Hiroaki Nakamura Japan Coast Guard Academy, Department of Liberal Arts, 5-1, Wakaba-cho, Kure City, Hiroshima, 737-8512, JAPAN nakamura@jcga.ac.jp Abstract. This paper deals with the complex verb formation of passive and potential predicates and syntactic structures projected by these verbs. Though both predicates are formed with the suffix -rare which has been assumed to originate from the same stem, they show significantly different syntactic behaviors. We propose two kinds of concatenation of base verbs and auxiliaries; passive verbs are lexically formed with the most restrictive mode of combination, while potential verbs are formed syntactically via more flexible combinatory operations of function composition. The difference in the mode of complex verb formation has significant consequences for their syntactic structures and semantic interpretations, including different combination with the honorific morphemes and subjectivization of arguments/adjuncts of base verbs. We also consider the case alternation phenomena and their implications for scope construals found in potential sentences, which can be accounted for in a unified manner in terms of the optional application of function composition. Keywords: Complex predicates, passive verb, potential verb, honorification, subjectivization, Combinatory Categorial Grammar. 1. Introduction Syntax and semantics of complex verbs have long been the focus of attention in Japanese linguistics. This paper proposes a new approach to the formation of passive and potential verbs, both of which include the auxiliary verb -rare, and explore the relationship between the complex verb formation and projections of syntactic structures. The auxiliary verb -rare has been assumed to be semantically ambiguous among passive, potential, spontaneous and honorific interpretations. We will take up the passive and potential interpretations of the auxiliary verb, and argue that there is a crucial difference between the two use of this verb. First, observe the sentence in (1): (1) Kurisumasu-ni-wa takusan-no keeki-ga taber-are-ru. Christmas-at-Top a lot of cake-Nom eat-Can/Pass-Pres 'At Christmas, a lot of cakes are/can be eaten.' (1) can be interpreted as passive on one reading, i.e., a lot of cakes are eaten at Christmas. On another reading, (1) is taken to be a statement of the possibility; we (or arbitrary people) can eat a lot of cakes at Christmas. * Copyright 2007 by Hiroaki Nakamura 340 The multiple usages of the auxiliary verb -rare has been assumed to be due to the common origin, sharing the meaning of spontaneity (get, become, etc.), though there are different hypotheses concerning which use is original. The interpretations of -rare are ambiguous in some cases and it is necessary to take contextual information into account. We will argue, however, that the two complex verbs must be derived in a completely different manner, exploring the interactions between the word formation and honorification or choice of subjects in sentences projected from them. Honorification is a device to indicate that the speaker feels respect for the person referred to by the grammatical subject or object, using the discontinuous honorific morpheme comprising the prefix o- and the verb -ni-nar (a kind of auxiliary verb). This …

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