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Table of Contents

Approval Page

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and Conventions

Table of Contents

0. Introduction

1. Some Background on the Structure of Japanese
1.1. Japanese Particles

2. The Base Position of Subjects
2.1. VP Internal Subjects
2.2. VP External Subjects
2.3. The Split VP Hypothesis (SVH)
2.3.1. Koizumi's SVH Arguments
2.3.1.1. Floating Quantifiers and Nominal Classifiers Revisited
2.3.1.2. Participle Agreement in French
2.3.1.3. Chain Conditions
2.3.1.4. Conclusion

2.3.2. The Split VP Hypothesis: Evidence from Austronesian Languages
2.3.3. The Split VP Hypothesis: Evidence from Irish

2.4. Conclusion

3. The Status of Functional Categories in Japanese

3.1. The Functional Category "Det"
3.2. The Functional Category "Infl"
3.3. The Functional Category "Comp"
3.4. Conclusion

4. Verbal Nouns and the VNP

4.1. Verbal Nouns and the VNP in Irish
4.2. Verbal Nouns and the VNP in Japanese

4.2.1. The Stem-form of the Verb
4.2.2. Japanese Light Verb Constructions
4.2.3. The Nominal Predicate
4.2.4. VP Movement and Soo Suru Revisited

4.3. Conclusion

5. Japanese Passive and Causative Constructions

5.1. The Causative Construction
5.2. The Passive Construction
5.3. Causative - Passive and Passive - Causative Constructions
5.4. Conclusion

6. Conclusion

References