Cleft Constructions in Japanese Syntax

Cleft constructions occur across languages and are much analyzed in relation to syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Mika Kizu, working in a Principles and Parameters framework, with some consideration of the Minimalist Program, provides the first coherent account of cleft constructions in Japanese. She claims that the construction is analyzed on a par with topic constructions and some types of relative clause. One of the most interesting properties, the syntactic phenomenon of 'connectivity' is closely examined.

Autorentext
MIKA KIZU studied at the University of California, Santa Cruz and completed her doctorate at McGill University. She is a Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Durham, UK.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Foreword PART 1: INTRODUCTION Preliminaries Background: English Cleft Constructions Phenomenon of Interest: Japanese Cleft Constructions Outline of the Book PART 2: TOPICALIZATION AND CLEFT CONSTRUCTIONS Introduction Topicalization in Japanese: A Brief Overview Our Assumptions about Topicalization Parallelisms Scrambling and Clefting Summary PART 3: NOMINALIZATIONS IN CLEFT CONSTRUCTIONS Introduction Properties of No No in Presuppositional Clauses Versus Prenominal No Relative Clauses and No -clauses of Clefts The No -clauses as a CP Summary PART 4: RESUMPTIVE A-DEPENDENCIES Introduction Basic Facts and Proposal Reconstruction in Long-distance Clefts Properties of A-movement Resumption Residual Issues Some Implications: Highest Clause Sensitivity Summary PART 5: ELLIPSIS IN CLEFT CONSTRUCTIONS Introduction Background and a Proposal Basic Facts about Japanses Sluicing Sluicing as a Cleft Construction Other Issues in Japanese Sluicing Some Consequences Summary PART 6: CONCLUSIONS References Index