Cleft Constructions in Japanese Syntax [Hardcover]

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.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 IndexMIKA 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.