RESTRUCTURING OF PHONOLOGICAL PHRASES IN JAPANESE AND SYNTACTIC DERIVATION

Within a derivational approach to syntax, it is predicted that restructuring of phonological phrases reflects the syntactic cycle under the assumption that a phonological phrase is formed when a phonological string is mapped to the phonological component. In this paper, I argue that such a prediction is borne out, by showing that the phonological phrasing in Japanese DP2s can be accounted for through the cyclic application of the restructuring within a theory of Multiple Spell-Out. In this paper, I discuss phonological phrasing in Japanese (Kubozono 1993).1 I argue that the phonological phrasing is a reflex of syntactic derivation by showing that the restructuring of the phonological phrases takes place derivationally, reflecting the cyclic application of the Multiple Spell-Out (Chomsky 2001a.b, Uriagereka 1999). Moreover, I show that the mismatch between the syntactic and phonological constituencies, which is one of the most important issues of syntax-phonology interface literature, is a result of the derivational application of restructuring. It is well known that restructuring of phonological phrasing applies in some languages. Inkelas and Zec 1995 argue that it applies in order to satisfy the condition that a phonological phrase should consist of two or more phonological words. Thus, the phrasing shown in (1a) is restructured as in (1b) (ω = a phonological word)