Over the years, a major strand of Miyagawa's research has been to study how syntax, case marking, and argument structure interact. In particular, Miyagawa's work addresses the nature of the relationship between syntax and argument structure, and how case marking and other phenomena help to elucidate this relationship. In this collection of new and revised pieces, Miyagawa expands and develops new analyses for numeral quantifier stranding, ditransitive constructions, nominative/genitive alternation, "syntactic" analysis of lexical and syntactic causatives, and historical change in the accusative case marking from Old Japanese to Modern Japanese. All of these analyses demonstrate an intimate relation among case marking, argument structure, and word order.

Roots of language was originally published in 1981 by Karoma Press (Ann Arbor). It was the first work to systematically develop a theory first suggested by Coelho in the late nineteenth century: that the creation of creole languages somehow reflected universal properties of language. The book also proposed that the same set of properties would be found to emerge in normal first-language acquisition and must have emerged in the original evolution of language. These proposals, some of which were elaborated in an article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1984), were immediately controversial and gave rise to a great deal of subsequent research in creoles, much of it aimed at rebutting the theory. The book also served to legitimize and stimulate research in language evolution, a topic regarded as off-limits by linguists for over a century. The present edition contains a foreword by the author bringing the theory up to date; a fuller exposition of many of its aspects can be found in the author's most recent work, More than nature needs (Harvard University Press, 2014).

Preliminary Material /Masayoshi Shibatani --Subject /S.-Y. Kuroda --Subject Raising /Susumu Kuno --Reflexivization: A Transformational Approach /Noriko Akatsuka Mccawley --Reflexivization: An Interpretive Approach /Kazuko Inoue --Passivization /Irwin Howard and Agnes M. Niyekawa-Howard --Causativization /Masayoshi Shibatani --Relativization /James D. Mccawley --Complementation /Lewis S. Josephs --Negation /Naomi Hanaoka Mcgloin --Tense, Aspect, and Modality /Minoru Nakau --Nominal Compounds /Seiichi Makino --Honorifics /S. I. Harada --Bibliography /Masayoshi Shibatani --Index /Masayoshi Shibatani.

This collection of papers reports our attempt to sketch how Japanese grammar can be represented in a constraint-based formalism. Our first attempt of this nature appeared a decade ago as Japanese Phrase Structure Grammar (Gunji 1987) and in several papers following the publication of the book. This book has evolved from a technical memo that was a progress report on the Japanese phrase structure grammar (JPSG) project, which was conducted as an activity of the JPSG Working Group at ICOT (Institute for New-Generation Computing Technology) from 1984 to 1992. JPSG implements ideas from recent developments in phrase structure grammar formalism, such as head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG), (see Pollard & Sag 1987, 1994) as applied to the Japanese language. The main goal of this project was to state various grammatical regularities exhibited in natural language in general (and in Japanese in particular) as a set of local constraints. The book is organized in two parts. Part I gives an overview of developments in our framework after the publication of Gunji (1987), introducing our fundamental assumptions as well as discussing various aspects of Japanese in the constraint based formalism and summarizing discussions of the JPSG Working Group during the above-mentioned period. Naturally, in the period after the publication of the above book, our discussion was centered on topics not covered in the book.

The linguistic study of Japanese, with its rich syntactic and phonological structure, complex writing system, and diverse sociohistorical context, is a rapidly growing research area. This book, designed to serve as a concise reference for researchers interested in the Japanese language and in typological studies of language in general, explores diverse characteristics of Japanese that are particularly intriguing when compared with English and other European languages. It pays equal attention to the theoretical aspects and empirical phenomena from theory-neutral perspectives, and presents necessary theoretical terms in clear and easy language. It consists of five thematic parts including sound system and lexicon, grammatical foundation and constructions, and pragmatics/sociolinguistics topics, with chapters that survey critical discussions arising in Japanese linguistics. The Cambridge Handbook of Japanese Linguistics will be welcomed by general linguists, and students and scholars working in linguistic typology, Japanese language, Japanese linguistics and Asian Studies.

This book synthesizes previous work on thanking, politeness and Japanese pragmatics and crystallises the theoretical underpinnings of thanking, how it is realized linguistically and the social meaning and significance of this aspect of Japanese communication.

This is a clear, simple and compact guide to colloquial, everyday Japanese. Acquire basic proficiency in spoken Japanese. A streamlined, efficient approach. Perfect for self-learners or classroom use. Includes kanji and kana. Essential Japanese Vocabulary teaches all the Japanese grammar you need to speak and understand simple spoken Japanese. It covers only what is essential which provides an efficient way for learners who have limited time to gain basic proficiency and begin to communicate naturally with Japanese language speakers. Intended for both self-study and classroom use the guide offers a practical course in colloquial Japanese, but leaves aside forms that are unnecessary or little used as well as those that are more important for written Japanese. In short chapters, it helps the user understand the logic of Japanese grammar, while its straightforward explanations and clear examples make learning as easy as possible. The book includes a glossary of grammatical terms and an index, as well as appendixes on Japanese pronunciation and verb conjugation. In a focused and convenient approach, Essential Japanese Vocabulary is an indispensable tool for beginners just starting to learn Japanese or a handy aid for more experienced learners who wish to refresh their knowledge.