Speaker: Masa Yamada (University of Kyoto/University of Chicago)
Date/Time: 3/16 (Friday) 3:30-5 pm **(Note unusual time)**
Location: 32-D831
Title: Reciprocal and Pluraction in Japanese
Abstract:
Numerous languages employ a morpheme that signals plurality,
distributivity, or pluractionality to describe real world reciprocal
situations. The Japanese verbal suffix -aw has reciprocal and
non-reciprocal pluraction uses, but the previous studies only focus on
the former use. I will propose two type-shift variants for the lexical
meaning of the suffix and argue that the two uses are due to some sort
of structural ambiguity in the verbal projection. When it combines
with a semantic transitive predicate (i.e. a relation between two
individuals), the canonical reciprocal interpretation obtains; when it
combines with a semantic intransitive predicate (i.e. a property of
individual, a context sensitive pluraction meaning results. I will
also demonstrate that the proposed analysis of the verbal reciprocal
correctly captures its interaction with other verbal suffixes such as
causative and applicative. This is a formal case study of the widely
observed phenomenon of (seemingly) polysemy of a linguistic reciprocal
expression.