On Case Alternation Phenomena : A Categorial Approach

ON CASE ALTERNATION PHENOMENA: A CATEGORIAL APPROACH Hiroaki Nakamura Japan Maritime Safety Academy 5-1 Wakaba-cho, Kure Hiroshima, 737-0832 JAPAN Email:nakamura msa.ac.jp ABSTRACT In Japanese potential and tough constructions, arguments standing in various semantic relations to a base verb can be marked with nominative case. Such subjects also may show up with genitive case in nominalizations irrespective of their semantic relations. This paper, addressing a variety of case alternations which have not hetherto attracted much attention from theoretical linguistics, proposes within the categorial framework that case alternations can be accounted for in terms of the applicability of a type shift rule introducing gaps into predicatephrases and the composition rule which combines base verbs with higher stative predicates passing the information about gaps up to the result categories. 0. INTRODUCTION In this paper, we propose a completely new analysis concerning nominative and genitive marking in Japanese stative clauses in the categorial framework. Its aim is twofold: to examine a wider range of data than has done in the past, and to provide a unified account of the phenomena called case alternations in Japanese. Let us begin with an overview of data.' I add the semantic roles of the arguments showing case alternations to each of the examples: (1) a. Tanaka-ga sakana-ga/-o� tabe-rare-nai-koto�(theme) Tanaka-NOM fish-NOM/-ACC eat-can-Neg-fact b.'the fact that Tanaka cannot eat fish. kono boorupen-ga/-de� hagaki-o� kaki-nikui-koto� (instrumental) this boll-point-pen-NOM/with postcard-ACC write-difficult-fact 'the fact that it is difficult to write a postcard with this boll-point pen' c. Yamada-no ie-gat-kart�daigaku-ni tuugaku-si-yasui-koto� (starting point) Yamada-GEN house-NOM/-from college-to go-easy-fact 'the fact that it is easy to go to college from Yamada's house' d. tihoo-gakkai-ga/-notameni� jugyoo-ga yasum-e-nai-koto�(reason) local meeting-NOM/because-of class-NOM skip-can-Neg-fact 'the fact that we cannot skip a class because of meetings of the local society' e. kono jitensya-gai-no� taia-ga� kookan-si-yasui-koto� (possessor of theme) this bicycle-NOM/GEN tire-NOM change-easy-fact add the formal noun koto 'fact' to example sentences throughout this paper. When the stative predicate expresses the property of an individual denoted by the subject that are permanent or relatively stable, the subject should be marked with the topic marker -wa, as in kono boorupen-wa kaki-nikui 'it is difficult to write with this ball-point pen' and if it is marked with nominative case, it receives the exhaustive-listing reading (see Shirai 1985). When it is embedded in the nominalization context, as in (1), the interpretation becomes ambiguous between the exhaustive- listing and neutral-description (Kuno 1973). 'the fact that it is easy to change tires of this bicycle' f. kono biru-ga/-no� 2-kai-de� syokuji-ga� dekiru-koto (possessor of locative phrase) this building-NOM/GEN second-floor-on meal-NOM do-can-fact `the fact that you can have a meal on the second floor of this building' The nominative NPs in (1) may show up with genitive case (Ga-No conversion) in nominalized expressions headed by koto or no 'fact' or in relative clauses.2 (2) a. Tanaka-no� sakana-no tabe-rare-nai-koto� (theme) b.Tanaka-GEN fish-GEN eat-can-Neg-fact kono boorupen-no� hagaki-no kaki-nikui-koto� (instrumental) this boll-point-pen-GEN postcard-GEN write-difficult-fact c. Yamada-no ie-no� daigaku-ni tuugaku-si-yasui-koto� (starting point) Yamada-GEN house-GEN college-to go-easy-fact d. tihoo-gakkai-no� jugyoo-no yasum-e-nai-koto�(reason) local meeting-GEN class-Nom …

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