Relative Affectedness in Japanese Passives: A Uniform Lexical‐Functional Analysis

Abstract

This thesis presents a uniform lexicalist analysis of Japanese passives within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. There are two major proposals in this thesis, (i) Japanese passives are not derived from role suppression but from a sort of complex predicate formation, and (ii) well-formedness in Japanese passives is licensed by a condition concerning whether or not the referent of a subject expresses the most affected participant in an event, which I term the Relative Affectedness Condition (RAC). First, this thesis will argue that Japanese passives are derived from a matrix verb r/are and a base verb. The morpheme r/are is proposed as a ditransitive verb with a transitive variant, expressing affectedness. The verb r/are selects an affectee subject, an optional affector ‘by-phrase’ and an event complement clause projected by a base verb. The matrix verb r/are is unspecified in its reference and thus needs to embed a base verb in argument structure. The complex predicate formation is formally represented by control in argument structure: a matrix affectee optionally controls an embedded argument, while a matrix affector, if present, obligatorily controls the logical subject of a base verb. The complex argument structure is mapped to a bi-clausal functional structure, constituting a minimal complete nucleus. The control configuration divides Japanese passives into two classes, control passives and disjoint passives: a matrix affectee controls the internal argument of an embedded verb in the control passive, but it does not, in the disjoint passive. Second, this thesis will argue that Japanese passives are subject to the RAC. Relative affectedness expresses a relative value of affectedness determined in relation to two or more participants in a single event. The control/disjoint distinction can influence the way a passive sentence is licensed by the RAC. The control passive is typically understood as felicitous if a matrix affectee controls an embedded ‘patient-like’ role and a matrix affector controls an embedded ‘agent-like’ role because a patient is more affected than an agent, so this pattern of control satisfies the RAC. On the other hand, the disjoint passive, in which the matrix affectee controls no role in the embedded clause, is sensitive to a lexical feature of a matrix affector itself, which I call autonomy. Autonomy implies a potential to influence events, so to satisfy the RAC: a matrix affectee must be understood as more affected than an ‘autonomous’ matrix affector. In sum, the grammaticality of Japanese passives is determined by the RAC, the composition of argument structure and the status of a ‘by-phrase’ as autonomous, in a complex clausal structure.