Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166 - 171). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-79).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed September 15, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-260).

This thesis examines those aspects of language in which syntax and extra-syntactic factors interface. There are three major approaches to discourse study (interpretation of a sentence in discourse): i) Discourse Study without Syntax: Any linguistic phenomena can be explained through discourse; syntax is dissolved into discourse study. ii) Discourse Study Interacting with Syntax: Syntactic rules and discourse functions interact or intermingle with each other. iii) Modular Approach to Discourse Study: Syntax is autonomous, but can feed information into other extra-syntactic components to obtain the final interpretation of a sentence in context. Approach (iii) is adopted here, where a "Government and Binding" (Chomsky (1981)) type of generative grammar is assumed as the syntactic framework. Four linguistic phenomena in Japanese are chosen for case studies of the mode of interaction between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Chapter 2 examines the Japanese reflexive zibun. The co-reference problem is solved through syntactic rules for the anaphoric use and discourse rules for the referential use. Chapter 3 examines demonstratives. Since they are originally used as deixis, the problem is mainly discussed in semantic and discourse arenas. The comparison between pronoun and demonstrative is also discussed. Both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 deal with the problem of coreference, which is one disambiguation mechanism in the comprehension of discourse. Chapter 4 examines quantifier interpretation. This problem involves another type of disambiguation mechanism. The scope interpretation being represented in LF, why a certain reading is obtained in the actual discourse environment is explained from the viewpoint of the human attention system (conscious and unconscious). Chapter 5 examines the particle wa, which is most commonly considered a topic marker or an old information marker. Wa marks a certain semantic structure in syntactic representation and such a wa-sentence has an important function in discourse organization. The nature of the contrastiveness associated with a wa sentence is explained in this light. In this modular type of approach, the phenomena which were formerly explained by fairly complex sets of rules have become more transparent, and some seemingly conflicting analyses done in the past are now considered as analyses of different aspects of a single phenomenon. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [221-119]).

This thesis purports to introduce a cost and benefit theory of politeness which sheds light upon the politeness system in Japanese. This involves the assumption that a communicative act is a rational act, executed for a communicative goal. Given so, politeness-bearing language use is strategic in nature. This implies that using a certain strategy appropriate in a given communicative situation is a consequence of rationalization. With effective utilization of the cost and benefit concept, broadly defined, linguistic politeness is viewed as a negotiation between the speaker and the hearer on the basis of the speaker's assessment of cost and/or benefit. In order to achieve a characterization of negotiation, the underlying principle, referred to as "Politeness Negotiation Principles," is proposed. The primary task in this thesis is to analyze the use of sentence particles within a framework of the cost and benefit theory. While the majority of studies of politeness phenomena in Japanese have centered around honorifics, which is widely known for its highly developed system, sentence particles have received little attention. In this regard, this study of sentence particles shows a much broader vista of politeness phenomena in Japanese than hitherto assumed. The application of the cost and benefit concept goes beyond the sphere of politeness phenomena. By identifying a cost and/or a benefit involved in a context where the modality item desyoo/daroo and the anaphoric demonstratives sono and ano are employed, the uses of these elements, which reveal interesting dynamics of interaction between the speaker and the hearer, can be explained.

In this dissertation, I propose a model of the Lexicon in order to have a satisfactory account of interactions between morphology and phonology. The model is a modification of Lexical Prosodic Phonology introduced in Inkelas (1989). The main point of this study is that there are three types of morphological operations defined by the number of prosodic domains constructed corresponding to one morphological domain. (1) Three types of morphological operations: (a) One that constructs two new prosodic domains; (b) One that constructs one new prosodic domain; and (c) One that does not construct any new prosodic domain. The first two types are cyclic, while the third one is noncyclic. The three types of morphology are referred to as compounding, cyclic affixation, and noncyclic affixation, respectively. Interaction between morphology and phonology in Japanese verbs provides arguments for the three-way distinction of morphology. Some rules apply only in compounding; some other rules take effect only in cyclic affixation; some rules take effect in all three morphological processes. Nonapplication of rules is due to either their structural description or their nonstructural property. In the former case, the structural description of a cyclic rule is not satisfied because of prosodic representation. In the latter case, a cyclic rule does not apply, even if the structural description is satisfied, because the domain is noncyclic.

This dissertation examines how information structure is represented in the different components of Japanese grammar. Each chapter investigates how topic/comment structure and focus/background structure are manifested in a given component of the grammar; that is, in phonology, syntax, and discourse/semantics. In chapter 2,1 investigate the interaction of syntax and prosody. I introduce the End-based analysis proposed by Selkirk &Tateishi (1988, 91) and propose certain revisions in order to accommodate a broader range of empirical facts than has previously been discussed in the literature. I show that presentational focus and contrastive focus are phonologically distinct and that contrastive focus overrides phonological phrasing. I then demonstrate that the system of focus projection proposed for stress languages such as English and German applies to Japanese. I show that focus projection takes place in the syntactic component, prior to mapping into prosodic structure, from the head of the phrase to its sisters (cf. Rochemont 1996) In chapter 3, I establish the discourse function of wa-marking in Japanese, extending Buring's analysis of sentence topics. I demonstrate that the discourse function of wa-marking parallels that of the L H * contour (B-accent) in English, and claim that wa-marking is equivalent to T-marking in the model of Biiring (1998). As such, wa-marking can be viewed as one of the discourse strategies available in Japanese for ensuring that a given assertion is congruent - that is, appropriate - to the question under discussion. In chapter 4,1 investigate the representation of information structure in syntax. I propose a phrase structure for Japanese based on a universal hierarchy of functional categories. I then divide the syntactic structure of Japanese into two major syntactic domains, which I call the topic domain and the comment domain. I show that both sentence topics and contrastively focused constituents must not be inside IP, which is identified as the comment domain. I further argue that subjects outside IP must be wa-marked unless contrastively focused. I conclude that syntactic structure is discourse-configurationally based. To conclude, I discuss the architecture of the grammar that emerges from the proposal defended in each chapter of this dissertation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (doctoral)--Macquarie University, 2002.