Grammar and semantics of adnominal clauses in Japanese

One crucial but rarely emphasized characteristic of Japanese noun modification by adnominal clause (e.g. relative clauses, noun complement clauses) is that the semantic function of the head noun with respect to the predicate in the modifying clause is not explicitly indicated. Despite the difficulties that this creates for any purely syntactic or structural analysis, the role of semantics and pragmatics has received little attention.;This study focuses on the construal of Japanese adnominal clauses, and has as purpose (1) to demonstrate that a purely syntactic analysis modelled on analyses of English relative clauses cannot account for Japanese Noun-Modifying Constructions (NMCs), (2) to show that semantics and pragmatics play a crucial role in the construal of clausal NMCs in Japanese, and (3) to suggest a framework that can account for a wide range of naturally-occurring NMCs. The proposed framework involves both semantic frames evoked by linguistic clues given in the constructions and construers' expectations based on their world-view. In the proposed framework, NMCs are classified into three groups depending on which constituent functions as the host for the purpose of the semantic integration of the clause and the head noun. The three types are the CLAUSE HOST (CH) TYPE, the NOUN HOST (NH) TYPE, and the CLAUSE AND NOUN HOST (CNH) TYPE; these can be illustrated by the examples (1) (CH) ( (tabeta) mise) 'ate shop', (NH) ( (tabeta) hanasi) 'ate story', (3) (CNH) ( (tabeta) kaeri) 'ate return' ((1) 'the shop (at which) () ate (), (2) 'the story (that) () ate ()', (3) 'the way back (from) eating'). The CH-type includes what have usually been called "relative clauses", but also includes a wider range of examples than previous analyses have attempted to treat.;This study reveals characteristic features of Japanese that cannot be treated without reference to semantics and pragmatics; the existence of such features argues strongly for the formulation of linguistic theories in which syntax, semantics and pragmatics all have their proper place.