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Logophoric and anaphoric 'otagai' in Japanese: an acceptability study

Medic, Vincent LU (2018) JAPK11 20181
Japanese Studies
Abstract
This study revolves around the Japanese reciprocal pronoun otagai ‘each other’. Native Japanese speakers were asked to judge the acceptability of 48 Japanese sentences. The goal was to see if they would treat otagai as a logophor if it resided in the embedded possessor position of the embedded object. A comparison was made between logophoric sentences whose only possible antecedent was in the same embedded clause as otagai, and logophoric sentences whose only possible antecedent lay outside of the embedded clause in the position of the matrix subject. Sentences which had otagai in a syntactically anaphoric position in the embedded clause were added for comparison. They too had the only possible antecedent either inside the embedded clause... (More)
This study revolves around the Japanese reciprocal pronoun otagai ‘each other’. Native Japanese speakers were asked to judge the acceptability of 48 Japanese sentences. The goal was to see if they would treat otagai as a logophor if it resided in the embedded possessor position of the embedded object. A comparison was made between logophoric sentences whose only possible antecedent was in the same embedded clause as otagai, and logophoric sentences whose only possible antecedent lay outside of the embedded clause in the position of the matrix subject. Sentences which had otagai in a syntactically anaphoric position in the embedded clause were added for comparison. They too had the only possible antecedent either inside the embedded clause or outside of the clause in the matrix subject position. The results show that the anaphoric sentences had a low level of acceptability in the cases where long-distance binding was necessary and a high level of acceptability when it was not. A high level of acceptability was found for the logophoric sentences which did not require
long-distance binding. In the case of the logophoric sentences which did require long-distance binding, there was an even distribution between low and high levels of acceptability. It was concluded that otagai in the embedded possessor position of an embedded object can indeed take a long-distance antecedent if context allows for it. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Medic, Vincent LU
supervisor
organization
course
JAPK11 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Japanese, anaphoricity, logophoricity, otagai, long-distance binding
language
English
id
8954824
date added to LUP
2018-08-09 14:31:45
date last changed
2018-08-09 14:31:45
@misc{8954824,
  abstract     = {{This study revolves around the Japanese reciprocal pronoun otagai ‘each other’. Native Japanese speakers were asked to judge the acceptability of 48 Japanese sentences. The goal was to see if they would treat otagai as a logophor if it resided in the embedded possessor position of the embedded object. A comparison was made between logophoric sentences whose only possible antecedent was in the same embedded clause as otagai, and logophoric sentences whose only possible antecedent lay outside of the embedded clause in the position of the matrix subject. Sentences which had otagai in a syntactically anaphoric position in the embedded clause were added for comparison. They too had the only possible antecedent either inside the embedded clause or outside of the clause in the matrix subject position. The results show that the anaphoric sentences had a low level of acceptability in the cases where long-distance binding was necessary and a high level of acceptability when it was not. A high level of acceptability was found for the logophoric sentences which did not require
long-distance binding. In the case of the logophoric sentences which did require long-distance binding, there was an even distribution between low and high levels of acceptability. It was concluded that otagai in the embedded possessor position of an embedded object can indeed take a long-distance antecedent if context allows for it.}},
  author       = {{Medic, Vincent}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Logophoric and anaphoric 'otagai' in Japanese: an acceptability study}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}