Grammatical functions and clause structure in Japanese. (Volumes I and II)

This dissertation examines several aspects of the Japanese clause structure within the framework of a hybrid of Autolexical Syntax and Lexical Functional Grammar, whose theoretical outline is sketched in chapter one.;Chapter two deals with the VP-node in Japanese. It is claimed through the close examination of VP-preposing, VP-deletion and focus marking particles that there exists a VP-node in c-structure. It is also claimed that a VP with zero pronoun object should not and in fact cannot be identified with the VP-deletion context. VP-preposing is formulated in terms of functional uncertainty. The conditions on VP-deletion is also discussed. It turns out that VP-deletion is nothing but the zero pronoun object of the full-fledged verb suru'do'.;Chapter three presents a sketch on some aspects of the Japanese clause structure, which have been hitherto neglected or are necessary for discussions in the subsequent chapters. The topics discussed are interrogative particle, negation, epistemic modality, polite forms, honorifics and VP (te) complements.;Chapter four deals with the raising constructions and the locative construction. First, raising-to-object construction is closely examined and the ternary-branching VP structure is defended. The scrambling analysis of this construction and the CP-ECM analysis of it are critically examined. Second, raising-to-subject construction is identified and analyzed. Third, the locative construction is discussed in light of the locative inversion sentences in English and Chichewa.;Chapter five examines the ;Chapter six deals with the island phenomena in Japanese. In the first section the notion of functional uncertainty is introduced and applied to some of the English island phenomena to demonstrate the effectiveness of this device. In the third section various island phenomena in Japanese are examined in connection with scrambling and they are formulated in terms of functional uncertainty.