LSA.239 | The Syntax of Pre-Modern Japanese

Akira Watanabe and John Whitman
TR 2:55-4:35
location: 32-144

This course takes up interesting syntactic properties of Pre-Modern
Japanese, including word order, case marking, and topic-focus articulation (related to so-called kakarimusubi). We will discuss what kind of synchronic analysis must be given as well as how the relevant properties of Pre-Modern Japanese were lost and replaced by those which characterize Modern Japanese. A basic understanding of syntax in the principles and parameters framework will be presupposed.