earticle

영어

This paper examines syntactic properties of so-called multiple negative polarity item constructions (multiple NPI constructions) in Japanese. I argue that NPIs in Japanese such as shika ‘only’, 1-Classifier-mo (hitori-mo/hitotsu-mo, etc ‘even a person/ even a thing’), Indeterminate-mo (dare-mo/nani-mo/dokoni-mo ‘anyone/anything/anywhere’) and kessite ‘never’ have the following syntactic constraints in order to occur in the multiple NPI constructions: NPIs in Japaanese multiple NPI constructions should appear only in the adjunct position. A majority of recent literature suggests that on the one hand shika ‘only’ and 1-Classifier-mo cannot be allowed to appear in multiple NPI constructions, on the other hand Indeterminate-mo and kessite ‘never’ can be. However, the literature indicates only the phenomena, and none of them gives us any explanations as to (i) which factors bring about the phenomena, and (ii) what syntactic properties of the phenomena are. There have been no past studies to focus on the syntactic positions of the NPIs in multiple NPI constructions. In fact, it is partly true that shika ‘only’ and 1-Classifier-mo cannot be allowed to appear in multiple NPI constructions unlike Indeterminate-mo and kessite ‘never’ as what past studies indicate, however, this is not always true because shika ‘only’ and 1-Classifier-mo can be allowed to appear in multiple NPI constructions when they appear in the adjunct position. In other words, they can be allowed to appear in multiple NPI constructions when they are in the adjunct position, but they cannot be allowed to appear when they are in the argument position. This phenomenon is the same as Indeterminate-mo and kessite ‘never’, namely they only appear in the adjunct position in multiple NPI constructions. This shows us that syntactic positions of NPIs are one of the significant factors for the syntactic properties of Japanese multiple NPI constructions.