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Split Intransitivity in Japanese and the Unaccusative Hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Hideki Kishimoto
Hideki Kishimoto*
Affiliation:
Shiga University
*
Department of English Education, Faculty of Education, Shiga University, 2-5-1, Hiratsu, Otsu-city, Shiga 520 Japan [f54939@jpnkudpc.bitnet]
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Abstract

It has been a locus of debate in the literature whether the so-called unergative-unaccusative split among intransitive verbs is syntactically or semantically based. Previously unnoticed data in Japanese show that the distinction between unergatives and unaccusatives is fully determined on the basis of verbs' inherent lexical meanings. In order to make the contrast, it is not sufficient to postulate that subjects of unaccusatives are derived syntactically from underlying direct objects.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , June 1996, pp. 248 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Linguistic Society of America

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