否定一致还是否定极性?——日语“wh+mo”问题再讨论

Negative Concord Items or Negative Polarity Items: Reanalysis of “wh+mo” in Japanese

跨语言研究成果表明,世界诸语言中的否定联用词至少存在两类——否定一致词与否定极性词。本文在批判并吸收Watanabe(2004)及片岡喜代子(2007)的基础上,通过比较其他语言的相关现象,重新分析了日语"wh+mo"的句法及语义特征,解决了片岡喜代子(2007)的两个遗留问题。本文提出这类词并非传统认为的否定极性词或全称量词,而是在使用过程中消除固有否定属性的否定一致词;另外在语义方面,"wh+mo"虽然能得到全称量化的解释并受到从句制约,但在下位蕴涵条件下仍然能够进行跨节允准。由此,为否定一致现象在日语中的存在提供了进一步的证据。

Cross-linguistic data showthat there are at least two types of negation-sensitive items in human language-negative concord items and negative polarity items. Partially acknowledging Watanabe's( 2004) and Kataoka's( 2007) relevant achievements and taking evidence from other languages,this article reanalyzes the syntactic and semantic characteristics of wh+mo in Japanese and finally solves two Kataoka's remaining problems. The analysis indicates that wh +mo is not negative polarity item or universal quantifier as traditionally recognized. Instead,it is a negative concord item eliminating inherent negativity in usage. Besides,wh +mo still can be semantically licensed across an indicative clause boundary in the condition of downward-entailment,even though it will be interpreted as a universal quantifier and bounded in a clause. In this sense,the paper brings more evidence for the existence of negative concord phenomenon in Japanese.