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AGAINST THE NULL COMPLEMENTIZER ANALYSIS OF JAPANESE RELATIVE CLAUSES

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In this paper, I argued that relative clauses in Japanese are IPs, contrary to the proposal that they are CPs headed by a null complementizer. I assumed that the lack of CP is responsible for the inapplicability of embedded topicalization in relative clauses and clausal adnominal modifiers in Japanese, and concluded that whenever they have a complementizer, it must be overt. I also showed that null complementizers must be licensed by an adjacent verb or noun, and demonstrated that relative clauses in Japanese do not have a null complementizer, based on the observation that they need not be adjacent to the head noun. Hence, I proposed that NGC is a result of Agree between a nominal element D and the embedded subject. Also, in order to answer the question why NGC is possible under Agree Closest and why it is blocked when a complementizer appears overtly, I referred to an analysis where the optional T-to-D head movement plays an important role. Under this analysis, the head movement feeds the Agree relation, but it is blocked when C is intervening between T and D.

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... This paper shows that the difference in the structure of relative clauses (RCs) in Korean and Japanese determines the availability of say-omission/contraction in these two languages. Specifically, in addition to providing a novel observation about say-omission/contraction in Korean and Japanese, we argue that this phenomenon is attributed to the presence of a CP layer in RCs in Korean (Yoon 1990, Han 1992 among many others), but to the lack thereof in Japanese (Saito 1985;Murasugi 1991;Taguchi 2008; Miyagawa 2011; among many others). We argue that RC-internal say-omission/contraction in Korean is an instance of TP-ellipsis. ...
... Namely, Korean RCs involve a larger structure than Japanese RCs. Specifically, relatives are TPs in Japanese while they are CPs in Korean (see also Saito 1985, Murasugi 1991, Taguchi 2008, cf. Miyagawa 2011 . ...
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