<html dir="ltr">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<style type="text/css" id="owaParaStyle"></style>
</head>
<body fpstyle="1" ocsi="0">
<div style="direction: ltr;font-family: Tahoma;color: #000000;font-size: 10pt;">I am not an expert on Japanese grammar and have none whatsoever native intuitions, and furthermore, some people will object to my analysis because it doesn’t conform to certain
models of grammar, but in my understanding there are no RCs in Japanese but only pre-modifyers in an NP, most of which are clauses consisting of, or ending in, a predicate (historically, these predicates had different endings from sentence-final predicates).
Now from this point of view there is no real difference between what would be translated into a RC in English and a pre-modifying adjective (this similarity is strengthened by the fact that adjectives are inflected for tense in Japanese). On the other hands,
certain expressions require な to form a predicate (like 静か ‘quiet'), and this な has sometimes (e.g. by Bloch) been analyzed as an allomorph of the copula. It is thus not a RC marker, but a predicate-builder. One could also say, that the copula is the only
verb where there still is a difference between rentaikei and shuushikei:<br>
<div><span lang="ja" xml:lang="ja" style="color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">静かな町 vs. </span>町は静かだ</span><span style="color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">。</span><br>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The second question concerns the order of pre-modifiers, where obviously a constraint that demonstratives have to be the first pre-modifier before any clausal modifier has been liftet. I cannot say anything about that. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Happy New Year,</div>
<div>Hartmut Haberland<br>
<div style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: 16px">
<hr tabindex="-1">
<div id="divRpF409992" style="direction: ltr;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2" color="#000000"><b>Fra:</b> Lingtyp [lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org] på vegne af Jianming Wu [wu.jianming2011@gmail.com]<br>
<b>Sendt:</b> 28. december 2014 12:59<br>
<b>Til:</b> Jean-Christophe Verstraete<br>
<b>Cc:</b> LINGTYP@listserv.linguistlist.org<br>
<b>Emne:</b> [Lingtyp] Inquiry on Japanese grammar<br>
</font><br>
</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Dear typologists,</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri"> The following two questions on Japanese grammar are from a graduate stuent in my department. I am wondering if you may offer some
help for him. Many thanks! </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Best </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Jianming Wu</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Institute of Linguisitcs,</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Shanghai International Studies University</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">" </font></span><span style="font-family:Calibri; color:black">Hello! I am a graduate student at SISU. I have some questions about Japanese
linguistic facts as I couldn’t find relevant literature. I will truly appreciate it if any typologists would kindly answer them as below or point me to the relevant literature:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><u></u><font face="Calibri"> </font><u></u></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">1.</font><span style="font-size:7pt; font-family:'Times New Roman'"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Relative
clauses (RC) in Japanese can do without RC markers. This has been testified by all the examples I have seen in the Japanese RC literature. For instance:<span style=""><u></u><u></u></span></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><u></u><font face="Calibri"> </font><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px; text-indent:18pt">
<span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">[<b><sub>RC</sub></b>aniki-ga katte-ki-ta __] ringo <u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">brother-NOM buy-come-PAST gap apple<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">“The apple that the brother bought.”<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><u></u><font face="Calibri"> </font><u></u></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">However, a Japanese native informant told me that it does not sound natural to omit the RC marker (</font></span><span style="font-family:宋体; color:rgb(51,51,51)">な</span><font face="Calibri"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:rgb(51,51,51)">/</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black">na/)
before the head noun. Therefore, I wonder if the inconsistency is due to the stylistic difference between the spoken and the written language.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><u></u><font face="Calibri"> </font><u></u></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">2.</font><span style="font-size:7pt; font-family:'Times New Roman'"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">According
to Kamio (1977) and Ishizuka (2008), demonstratives (Dem) can either precede or follow RCs in Japanese. See below:<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><u></u><font face="Calibri"> </font><u></u></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">(1)</font><span style="font-size:7pt; font-family:'Times New Roman'"> </span></span><font face="Calibri"><b><span lang="EN-US">Sono</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> [aniki-ga katte-ki-ta__] ringo (Kamio,
1977)<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">that brother-NOM buy-come-PAST gap apple<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px; text-indent:18pt">
<span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">“That apple which the brother bought.”<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">(2)</font><span style="font-size:7pt; font-family:'Times New Roman'"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">[minna-ga __ sagasi-teiru] <b>sono</b> ronbun<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">everyone-NOM gap look-for-ASP that paper<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Calibri">“That paper which everyone is looking for.”<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><u></u><font face="Calibri"> </font><u></u></span></p>
<p style="font-size:13px; text-indent:0cm; margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Leaving aside the functional differences, I wonder if there is any biased usage of either configuration (Dem-RC or RC-Dem). In a
study published in a Chinese journal (<i>Japanese Learning and Research</i>), Sheng (2010: 86-94) has found a significant Dem post-positioning bias in RCs in a Japanese corpus study. In fact, only 6 instances of Dem-RC configuration were found. However, the
corpus is based on Japanese novels. I have talked to 2 participants after the experiment and they admitted that either configuration (Dem-RC or RC-Dem) was equally acceptable to them. So I wonder if the post-positioning bias reported in Sheng (2010) is also
due to the stylistic difference. I have been trying to locate corpus studies based on the spoken Japanese that bear on this question, but I couldn’t find any relevant literature in English or Chinese. <u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><u></u><font face="Calibri"> </font><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt; font-size:13px"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black"><font face="Calibri">Thanks a lot!<u></u><u></u></font></span></p>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; color:black; font-size:10.5pt">Lv Jun"</span><br>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>