David Y. Oshima

Syntactic direction and obviation as empathy-based phenomena: a typological approach

Abstract In previous studies, various syntactic/semantic factors (person hierarchy, animacy, topicality, etc.) have been discussed as relevant to linguistic phenomena known as syntactic direction and nominal obviation. This article develops and motivates a uniform analysis of the direct/inverse and obviation marking (DIO-marking), based on the (extended) theory of linguistic empathy. Drawing on data from four languages that belong to different families (Cree, Navajo, Jinghpaw, and Japanese), I discuss that the empathy-based approach (i) provides a uniform analysis of DIO-systems in different languages, as well as the yaru/kureru opposition in Japanese, which have been believed to be controlled by different sets of syntactic/semantic factors, and (ii) dispenses with construction-specific rules/constraints such as the person constraint, the possessive constraint, and the ban on multiple proximates within a clause. I also demonstrate that the empathy-based account allows us to model similarities/contrasts among DIO-systems in a comprehensive way, reducing crosslinguistic differences into two planes: (i) the plane of E-marking: how and to what extent empathy relations are encoded, and (ii) the plane of E-ranking: what factors affect (more) empathy relations.

Between being wise and acting wise: A hidden conditional in some constructions with propensity adjectives

This paper develops a semantic analysis of three constructions: (i) the subject-oriented adverb construction ( Wisely, John left early ), (ii) the ‘Adj+ to Inf’ construction ( John was wise to leave early ), and (iii) the ‘Adj+ of NP’ construction ( It was wise of John to leave early ), which all involve three semantic components: (i) an individual a ( John ), (ii) a property P 1 that describes a mental/behavioral propensity ( wise ), and (iii) another property P 2 which typically describes an action ( leave early ). I argue that the three constructions share a meaning along the lines of ‘ P 2 ( a ), and from this it is possible to infer that P 1 ( a )’, where P 1 is forced to receive the transitory interpretation, but they differ as to which component they assert/presuppose. I further demonstrate that this analysis allows us to solve two well-known semantic puzzles concerning these constructions (the ‘entailment puzzle’ and the ‘embeddability puzzle’). The three constructions are highly amenable to the Construction Grammar approach, because their meaning cannot be derived from the intuitive meanings of their constituents and regular semantic rules only. I provide formal analyses of the three constructions in the framework of Sign-Based Construction Grammar (SBCG).

How multiple past tenses divide the labor: The case of South Baffin Inuktitut

Abstract It is a common perception that in languages having multiple past tenses with different remoteness specifications, the past tenses cover the entire past without a gap or overlap. This paper demonstrates that this way of looking at multiple-past tense systems is not appropriate for the system in South Baffin Inuktitut (a variety of the Inuit language). The dialect has at least four past tenses: recent, hodiernal, pre-hodiernal, and distant. We argue that the relation between the four tenses cannot be represented by a simple linear scheme for two reasons. First, the pre-hodiernal past has a special status as the “conventionally designated alternative”, which is chosen in cases of remoteness indeterminacy, analogous to, for example, the Russian masculine gender being used in cases of gender indeterminacy. Second, there is overlap in their coverage. The pre-hodiernal and hodiernal past tenses collectively cover the entire past and thus any past situation can be described with one of them. The other two provide means to make more fine-grained and subjective temporal specifications. Comparison will be made between the system in South Baffin Inuktitut and those in some Bantoid languages which have been pointed out in the literature to have a comparable layered system of tenses.

On the Functions of the Japanese Discourse Particle yo in Declaratives

This chapter presents a novel analysis of two central uses—Davis’ (2011) “guide to action” and “correction” uses—of the Japanese discourse particle yo occurring in declarative clauses. Yo accompanied by the question-rise contour has a function to add the propositional content to the modal base for priority modality relativized to the hearer, thereby indicating that the propositional content is relevant to what the hearer should and may do. Yo accompanied by the non-rising (flat) contour has a function to indicate that the hearer should have recognized the propositional content beforehand. Four other functions of yo in declaratives will also be briefly discussed. It will further be pointed out yo accompanied by the rise-fall contour has similar functions as yo accompanied by the non-rising contour, but additionally expresses the speaker’s want for the hearer’s sympathy and/or understanding.

The Japanese Particle yo in Declaratives: Relevance, Priority, and Blaming

This paper presents a novel analysis of two central uses – Davis’ (2011) “guide to action” and “correction” uses – of the Japanese discourse particle yo occurring in declarative clauses. Yo with a rising contour instructs to update the modal base for priority modality relativized to the hearer, thereby indicating that the propositional content is relevant to what the hearer should and may do. Yo with a non-rising contour has a function to indicate that the hearer should have recognized the propositional content beforehand. The two uses of yo share the property of being concerned with the hearer’s duties.