Yukinori Takubo

Language, Cognition and Logic,
Viewed from the Polysemy of a Japanese Formal Noun tokoro (location)

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an approach to language as it relates to cognition and thought processes by looking into the mapping relation among spatial, temporal, and modal domains. I will take up the problem of polysemy involving tokoro, a formal noun meaning ‘location’ in Japanese, to discuss such problems as the relation between language and inferential mechanisms, the interfaces between syntax and semantics, and those between semantics and pragmatics.  I will first discuss various spatial usages of tokoro expressing place or location to characterize its core meaning as ‘identifying a reference point,’ which is crucially used in relative nouns expressing space orientation.  Secondly, I will examine how the core meaning thus characterized can be extended to the temporal domain.  In the temporal domain, tokoro identifies a part of the temporal trace of an event as a reference point, and orders the event to be located with respect to the reference point identified by tokoro, thereby accounting for how the addition of tokoro to a predicate restricts the interpretive possibilities for expressions of tense and aspect, specifically -ru, -teiru and -ta.  In the modal domain, tokoro, when attached to a predicate, requires the sentence to be a counterfactual conditional: Both the premise and the consequent must be interpreted to be counterfactual.  I demonstrate how the characterization of tokoro as ‘identifying a reference point,’ and the mechanisms underlying said characterization as argued for in this paper can account for the counterfactuality of tokoro conditionals in the modal domain.

本稿では、日本語のテンス、アスペクト形式であるu~ru、ta~da、-te i-~-de i-の意味について考察する。以後、異形態をそれぞれ示さず、ル、タ、テイで代表させる。これらの形式に関しては非常に多くの研究があるが、紙面と時間の都合でこれまでの研究史には触れず、本稿の立場を非常に簡略化して呈示する。
　本稿では非状態述語に付くル、タがイベント（のインターバル）を取って、その前後関係をつけるという機能を持っているという主張を行う。また、状態述語に付くル、タはテンスを表すという主張を行う。テイに関してはそれが状態述語と同じ取り扱いを受けるとする

In this paper, we present a theory of discourse management, based on a version of Mental Space Theory, modified to accommodate dialogic discourse by incorporating a memory management system. We posit a cognitive interface between linguistic expressions and the memory-base. This interface works as a mental discourse domain in which elements are set up and relations defined in the course of a discourse. We propose to divide this mental discourse domain into two components, I-domain (intensional, indirect domain) and D-domain (deictic, direct domain). The I-domain is linked to the temporary memory and houses assumptions which are newly introduced to the discourse by linguistic description. The D-domain is linked to the permanent memory (and direct experience) and houses assumptions that are directly accessible.To demonstrate the correctness of our approach, we examine phenomena in Japanese involving reference fixing: proper nouns, third person pronouns and demonstratives, and assumption management particles: sentence final particles yo and ne. We show that our dual domain approach solves problems of mutual knowledge paradox involved in these phenomena by eliminating the need to make any reference to the hearer's knowledge assumed by the speaker in the description, thereby providing a powerful descriptive tool for some of the most recalcitrant problems in linguistic phenomena.

本稿では、発話時を表す「今」とさまざまな領域においてその対応物を同定する「今ごろ」の解釈方略を考察する。まず「明日の今ごろ」のような相対的時間名詞と共に用いられる用法を観察し、「今ごろ」の解釈には「今」が設定する発話時を時間スケールで評価して、その時間的性質を抽出する必要があることを見る。さらに、モーダルの助動詞「だろう」「かもしれない」のように「話し手の現実」と離れた領域の設定を必要とする場合や、「条件的仮想」のような現実と異なる領域の設定を必要とする場合にも「今ごろ」が用いられることから、これらの場合にも「今」が評価される時間スケールが関わっていることを提案する。この提案によりモーダルを含む文における「今ごろ」と「今」のニュアンスの違い、譲歩文の後件に「今ごろ」が使いにくいことを説明する。

In this paper we review some basic facts of negation in Mandarin Chinese as determined by syntax.  A negative morpheme generally has its sister position, i.e., its complement, as its scope.  The basic semantic function of a negative morpheme is to give a complement set of the set denoted by the predicate in its scope.  In the case of phrasal or sentential negation, the complement set can be given by associating negation with one of constituents in the scope, thereby giving the focus of negation.  Given the head first and right branching structure of the predicate phrase in Chinese, it is expected that a phrasal negative element, such as bu and mei(you) has the VP, i.e., its right sister, as its scope and that the constituents in its left are to be outside its scope.  Constituents to the left of negative morphemes cannot be negated, i.e. cannot be the focus of negation, while those in the right can.
There are some cases, however, in which constituents to the left of the negative morphemes appear to be in the scope of negation.  In sentences such as ‘Shenme ye mei shuo.’ ((I ) have not said anything.), the phrase 'shenme ye' appears to be in the scope of negation 'mei' in that it is interpreted as a negative polarity item, which is generally required to be in the scope of negation to be interpretable.  We will show that phrases like these are not in the scope of negation, and that they are not negative polarity items and that the relevant interpretation can be obtained by treating them as universal quantifiers.
    We will demonstrate that in Mandarin Chinese, and probably in other dialects of Chinese, the following holds, as are the case with other languages:
A. Negation scope is the sister constituent of the negative morphemes.
B. The focus of negation must be in the scope of negation.