LINGUIST List 13.1013

Fri Apr 12 2002

Diss: Syntax: Hara "Anaphoric dependencies.."

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. esther.kraak, Syntax: Hara "Anaphoric dependencies in Japanese"

New Dissertation Abstract

Institution: Utrecht University
Program: Utrecht Institute of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2002

Author: Takaaki Hara 
Dissertation Title: 
Anaphoric dependencies in Japanese

Dissertation URL: http://wwwlot.let.uu.nl/LOTDissertations/dissertations.htm

Linguistic Field: Syntax

Subject Language: Japanese

Dissertation Director 1: Eric Reuland
Dissertation Director 2: Tanya Reinhart


Dissertation Abstract: 

Anaphoric Dependencies in Japanese investigates three issues regarding
anaphora in Japanese: (i) what roles the simplex anaphor zibun and the
complex anaphor zibun-zisin play in yielding a reflexive
interpretation (i.e. the function of zibun versus zibun-zisin in the
local domain), (ii) how non-local zibun (i.e. cases in which an
antecedent for zibun is not its coargument) should be dealt with in
the grammar, and (iii) why it is difficult to construe a third person
pronoun in Japanese as a variable bound by a quantifier phrase. The
analysis is presented within the framework of Reuland (2001), which is
an extension of the reflexivity framework of Reinhart and Reuland
(1993), coupled with accessibility theory developed by Ariel
(1990). It is proposed that in contrast to Dutch simplex anaphor zich,
a dependency relation between zibun and its antecedent will not be
formed within the computational system and that this opens up the
possibility of an interpretation which is sensitive to discourse
factors, as suggested in accessibility theory. The behaviour of zibun,
which has resisted a purely syntactic account thus far, is claimed to
follow from the fact that it is a high accessibility marker. Moreover,
it is argued that the availability of a bound variable interpretation
for different anaphoric expressions follows from accessibility theory
too, in the sense that a high accessibility marker will be used to
code a bound variable reading in the default case. This explains why a
third person pronoun in Japanese, which is a lower accessibility
marker, is not easily bound by a quantifier phrase.

Anaphoric Dependencies in Japanese is of interest to researchers
working on anaphora as well as scholars interested in
syntax-semantics/discourse interface in general.