The syntactic and semantic structures of complex predicate constructions in Japanese

The complex predicate construction in Japanese consisting of the verb suru ('do') and an accusative-marked predicative noun has drawn linguists' attention for decades. Several analyses have been proposed for the thematic structure of this construction. My analysis posits complex predicate formation rules, which apply at Logical Form to combine the information in the lexical entry for suru with the information in the entry for a predicative noun, creating a single set of semantic, thematic, and syntactic representations.; Unlike previous analyses, my account involves no movement for any constituent or argument structure, and treats suru like other verbs where case-marking of its arguments is concerned. Suru does differ from other verbs, however, in virtue of the many syntactic frames where it occurs with no morphological change. I extend my analysis to cases in which predicative nouns are marked with nominative and dative case and show that the syntactic frame it occurs in is determined by the lexical properties of the predicative noun.; Further, I propose that a subclass of complex predicate constructions undergo incorporation as well as complex predicate formation at LF, based on the inapplicability of scrambling, relativization, and topicalization, and the applicability of blocking. Finally, I describe the differences between complex predicate constructions and the corresponding complex verbs, and consider the proposal that complex verbs undergo syntactic incorporation.