Scope Interpretation of Negation in Japanese.

Abstract

Kuno offered the first attempt to explain the scope of negation based on the general characteristics of the negative morpheme na in Japanese. He argues that only the verbals which immediately precede na are under the scope of negation, except those that have a certain information structure. However, our study shows that Kuno's claim is empirically inadequate. Among other problems, his explanation for why immediate precedence determines the scope of negation does not hold. He ignores the fact that na attaches only to verbs and it does not attach to other predicates. Thus, the attachment fact explains for only verbs plus na, but it does not explain for other predicates plus na, e.g., adjectives plus na, etc. On the other h and , our study shows that the structural notion, c-comm and , is the one that explains the scope interpretation of negation (in addition to that of quantifiers and particles) in Japanese. The study claims that there are two types of negative words: one attaches to verbs in the lexicon creating a negative verb, and the other is an adjective which takes an AP, NP or no complement. Given the two types of negative words and an assumption that Japanese has a VP, it is a natural consequence that verbs ( and adjectives) are always inside the scope of negation, while NP -wa (Topic NP), NP -ga (Subject NP) and sentential adverbs are outside the scope of negation. Our study shows also support for the assumption that Japanese has a VP. First, a VP is needed not only for the scope interpretation of negation but also for an adequate description of particles. Second, interpretations of nul and overt pronominals also suggest that Japanese has a VP at least at the level where the Binding conditions apply. The whole dissertation could be seen as an argument for the existence of a VP in Japanese. Since Japanese has been cited as a prime example of a non-configurational language, this study has an implication that there may be no such thing as a non-configurational language.