Edith Aldridge

Syntax. From Northwestern University. Location: SAC 311.

Wh-questions in the Pseudo-Chinese of Old Japanese

In this talk, I use data from the 8th century texts Kojiki and Manyoshu to argue that old Japanese had short wh-movement to a clause-internal focus position. This proposal stands in contrast to earlier claims made by Akira Watanabe that this movement targeted a position in the C domain. Additionally, I hope to show that the pseudo-Chinese language of the Kojiki can in fact be used in an analysis of Japanese syntax.

Readings:

• Watanabe, Akira. 2002. Loss of Overt Wh-Movement in Old Japanese. In D. Lightfoot, ed., Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change, 179-195.
• Aldridge, Edith. 2001. Hentai Kambun Perspective on Short Scrambling. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 10:169-200.