So-Called Pronoun-Noun Construction in Japanese : A New Perspective on Nominal Syntax

This paper shows that personal pronouns in Japanese are neither D0 nor N0, but ratherthey sit in Spec position within (a certain extended projection of) the nominal phrase.Evidence comes from close examination of the so-called pronoun-noun construction inthis language. Despite its name, the preceding nominals in this construction can beproper names or demonstrative phrases followed by an associative marker -tachi, as wellas personal pronouns. I claim that these three types of nominal elements form a single,natural class i.e., Indexical class, and that they are merged in a designated positionwithin nominal phrases, which is identified as SpecCaseP. I further argue that theseIndexical nominals are syntactically distinguished from intensional, property-denotinglexical nominals. In a nutshell, CaseP is the locus of reference-fixing, where properties orintensions denoted by a lexical nominal are related to individuals directly referred to byan Indexical, extensional nominal in SpecCaseP