Register-Specific Morphophonological Constructions in Japanese

Head-Initial Constructions in Japanese

Japanese is often taken to be strictly head-final in its syntax. In our work on a broad-coverage, precision implemented HPSG for Japanese, we have found that while this is generally true, there are nonetheless a few minor exceptions to the broad trend. In this paper, we describe the grammar engineering project, present the exceptions we have found, and conclude that this kind of phenomenon moti...

Ga ga constructions in Japanese

The Japanese nominative particle ga can mark a subject, a possessor of a subject, an adjunct and the object of a stative predicate. A prevalent view is that a tensed head licenses more than one nominative phrase in multiple specifier or adjoined positions in one projection (Heycock 1993, Ura 1996, among others). I argue, however, that such a head licenses exactly one nominative phrase and that ...

On Japanese Desiderative Constructions

This paper describes desiderative constructions in Japanese with the main focus on ta(i) ‘want’ desideratives. In spite of the morphological one-word status, desiderative constructions have been claimed to have a complex structure at some abstract level of representation. We claim that there are two types of desideratives, and that their predicates have different lexical representations within ...

Register-Specific Collocational Constructions in English and Spanish: A Usage-Based Approach

Article history Received: 02-05-2015 Revised: 14-05-2015 Accepted: 14-05-2015 Abstract: Constructions are usage-based, conventionalised pairings of form and function within a cline of complexity and schematisation. Most research within Construction Grammar has focused on the monolingual description of schematic constructions: Mainly in English, but to a lesser extent in other languages as well....

Japanese Post-verbal Constructions Revisited