Presuppositional Effects of Scrambling Reconsidered*

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By examining many other examples illustrating a similar contrast, Yanagida (1995) proposes the structure in (43) with a new functional projection FocP for Japanese in order to account for such contrasts. 17 (43) IP 2 I’ 2 FocP I 2 Foc’ 2 VP Foc (Yanagida 1995:35) There is no need to enrich the structure of sentences as in (43) under the interface approach. Notice that the question in (42a) presupposes that Taro read something quickly. One notable property of the unacceptable (42b) is that the presupposed part is split across the focus. The contrast between (42a) and (42b) thus points to a tendency to have material in the presupposition linearly contiguous. As a first approximation, I will state this tendency in the form of a condition as in (44). 18 (44) Material in the presupposition must be contiguous inside TP at PF. (42b), in which the main stress is assigned to the object by the nuclear stress rule, does not satisfy (44). The object is scrambled across the adverb isoide ‘quickly’ and receives the main stress by stress shift in (42a). As a result, the adverb and the verb, the two presupposed parts, occur contiguously within TP. Notice that the verb cannot be scrambled along with the rest of the presupposition, Japanese being a rigid verb-final language. If the verbal part is presupposed, the only way to satisfy (44) is to place the rest of the presupposition right next to the verb itself. Note the formulation in (44) refers to the TP domain. 19 The topic NP John-wa ‘John-top’ is old information and hence should be included in the “presupposition.” However, John-wa is separated from the other part of the presupposition in (42). I tentatively assume that topic phrases are outside the TP domain, and (44) is irrelevant. The sentence in (45) can be an appropriate answer to (42a). Here again, isoide ‘quickly’, which is part of the presupposition, occurs in the position that immediately precedes the verb for the same reason that it does in (42a). 17 Yanagida’s (1995) analysis can be regarded as an extension of Horvath’s (1986) analysis of Hungarian to Japanese. See Harvath 2000 for her recent view on focus, where an interface-based account is proposed along the lines of Reinhart (1995) and Neeleman and Reinhart (1998). 18 See Ishihara 2000 for an attempt to derive a condition that is somewhat similar to (44) from Economy and its interaction with his Deaccenting Rule. (See also footnote 16.) 19 This is a partial return to the Mapping Hypothesis in the sense that elements outside a certain domain (TP here) are necessarily presuppositional. 14
(45) Taroo-wa hon-o isoide yonda ( no desu). Taro-TOP book-ACC quickly read NL COP ‘Taro quickly read a book.’ The examples in (46) make a similar point. (46a) and (46b) share the presupposition, namely that someone goes to Osaka. In (46a), Osaka-wa ‘Osaka-TOP’ is a topic phrase, and hence may be separated from the rest of the presupposition. Since the rest of the presupposition consists of the verbal part only, the sentence trivially satisfies the condition in (44). In (46b), in contrast, Osaka-ni is not a topic phrase and is not overtly marked as “presuppositional.” These examples are taken from Kim (1988), who points out that the sentence in (46b) fits contexts such as (47). Since the verb is included in the presuppositional part in this context, Osaka-ni must occur in the immediately preverbal position in order to satisfy (44). This accounts for the awkwardness of (46b’). (46) a. Osaka-wa dare-ga iku no? Osaka-TOP who-NOM go Q ‘Who will go to Osaka?’ b. Dare-ga Osaka-ni iku no? who-NOM Osaka-to go Q ‘Who will go to Osaka?’ b’. # Osaka-ni dare-ga iku no? Osaka-to who-NOM go Q (a-b: Kim 1988:159) (47) If the company has several branches in major cities and the branch managers are routinely rotated, then [(46b)] would be more appropriate. Osaka in this context is considered as a part of the routine affair (old information) going to one of those branches, unlike [(46a)] where Osaka is especially topicalized by itself. (Kim 1988:159) Kim uses the term “phrasal topic” to refer to this presuppositional part (or old information). Kim’s observation is compatible with the claim made in this paper because the term “phrasal topic” implies that it must be contiguous. The present account based on the condition in (44) makes a prediction. The pattern observed in (42), where the position immediately preceding the verb resists focalization, are limited to cases where the verb is in the presupposition. Where the verb is not presupposed, the position immediately to the left of the verb receives the main stress as we have seen above. 15
Page 1 and 2: February 2001 To appear in the proc
Page 3 and 4: the generalization given in (4), an
Page 5 and 6: (15) Main stress assigned by the nu
Page 7: (24) Economy entails that stress st
Page 11: . Taroo-ga hon-oi Hanako-ni ti aget
Page 16 and 17: 4. Floating Quantifiers and Focus W
Page 18 and 19: However, the partitive reading on t
Page 20 and 21: (60) #okane-o dare-ga Taroo-ga nusu
Page 22 and 23: Kamio, Akio. 1983. Meishiku-no kooz

Presuppositional Effects of Scrambling Reconsidered*

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