Like many other grammatical categories, focus particles (FPs) in
Japanese show a number of similarities and differences with their
English counterparts. One of the most significant differences
between the two is that the former sometimes allow association with
phrases larger than the ones they attach to, while the latter never
allow it. This peculiar behavior of FPs in Japanese has often been
pointed out in the literature (see Numata (2000) and references
therein). A typical example is the following:
(1) [Pan dake o tabe ta.]_F
bread only ACC eat PAST
``(I) only ate bread (and didn't wash my face this morning).''
In (1), the FP `dake' attaches to the noun `pan' but what is focused
and associated with it is the whole VP containing the FP, as can be
inferred from the English translation. In Japanese, an FP can also
associate with a phrase that is a subpart of what it attaches to.
In this respect, it behaves in much the same way as its counterpart
in English.
(2) [S Pan_F o tabe ta] dake da.
bread ACC eat PAST only COP
``(I) ate only bread.''
In (2), the FP `dake' associates with the noun `pan', which is a
subpart of the S to which `dake' attaches.
In spite of the vast amount of work on FPs in Japanese, none of the
previous formal accounts, as far as I am aware, have offered precise
and consistent analyses of the phenomena mentioned above. In this
talk, I will present an explicit mechanism of association with focus
in Japanese that deals with these two cases in a uniform manner. The
proposed theory is basically formulated in the alternative semantics
of Rooth (1985) together with an HPSG syntax (Pollard and Sag 1994).
I will also address the problems of the semantic difference of `de dake'
and `dake de' sentences exemplified by the following pair and scope
interactions between two FPs.
(3) a. Zitensya dake de soko ni ik eru.
bike only with there to go can
``I can get there by bike alone.'' / ``Only by bike, can I get there.''
b. Zitensya de dake soko ni ik eru.
bike with only there to go can
``Only by bike, can I get there.''
References
Numata, Y. 2000. Toritate (Focusing). In S. Kinsui, M. Kudo and Y.
Numata. Toki, Hitei to Toritate (Tense, Negation and Focusing).
Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Rooth, M. E. 1985. Association with Focus. Ph. D. Dissertation.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Pollard, C. J. and I. A. Sag. 1994. Head-Driven Phrase Structure
Grammar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
