yoku and, finally, is expanded with the temporal situation element anokoro. The expansion elements in (23) are in the embedding relation [anokoro[yoku[nanzikan.mo [nessin.ni]]]]. That is, the manner modifying element is contained within the time- relation modifying element, both are then contained within the frequency modifying element, and then all of them are then embedded within the temporal situation element. These relations can be summarized as below.
(24) [time [frequency [temporal relations [manner–event]]]]
The elements that expand the core of a sentence’s structure are not arranged at the linear level but are arranged in a layered structure as shown in (24).
(29) Kaki no mi ga akai.
persimmon GEN fruit NOM red.CONCL
‘The persimmons are red.’
In adjectival and nominal sentences, normally the subject takes the particlewathat shows topic. (28) is such an example. The cases when the subject can be shown by gaand not receive the exhaustive listing interpretation are ones like (29), in which a temporary state, a situation whose existence is temporally limited, is expressed.
When an adjectival or nominal sentence expresses a temporary state, it can still take a number of expansion elements, but when they express attributes of a person or thing, the expansion elements that can co-occur with the predicate word are extremely limited.
(30) Sonokoro boku wa sibasiba onaka ga itakat -ta.
those.days I TOP frequently stomach NOM painful.ADVL PST
‘Those days I often had stomachaches.’
(31) *Anokoro kare wa Hokkaidoo-syussin dat -ta those.days he TOP Hokkaido-birthplace COP.ADVL PST
‘Those days, his birthplace was Hokkaido.’
(30) expresses a temporary state. In (30), the predicate word can co-occur with the temporal situation elementsonokoroand the frequency modifying elementsibasiba.
In contrast, (31) expresses an attribute that, once acquired, cannot be changed. In a sentence like this, not even a temporal situation element (in this example,anokoro) can co-occur.
4 The layeredness of the clause
There is a type of sentence called a complex sentence. This is a sentence composed of more than one clause. Among the clauses are the main clause, which forms the sentence, and a clause or clauses subordinate to the main clause called subordinate clauses. As has been well-known ever since it was advocated by Minami (1974, 1993), there are varying degrees of subordination among clauses, including main clauses.
There exist embedding relations among the types of clauses depending on the degree of subordination of the clause, in which clauses embed other clauses or are embedded within them.
(32) Memo o tori -nagara hanasi o
notes ACC take.ADVL CONJCTPART/MAN talk ACC
kiku -to, yoku wakaru
listen.CONCL CONJCTPART/COND well understand.CONCL
-node, memo o toroo to CONJCTPART/REAS notes ACC take.INTF QUOT
omot -ta ga, nooto ga
think.ADVL PST CONJCTPART/COO R notebook NOM
mitukara nakat -ta.
be.found.IRR AUX/NEG.ADVL PST
‘Since I understand better when I take notes asI listen to the talk, I went to take notes, but I couldn’tfind my notebook.’
In (32),memo o tori.nagarais a manner clause describing how the action of [hanasi o kiku] takes place and is therefore, embedded within the conditional clause hanasi o kiku to. The combinationmemo o tori.nagara hanasi o kiku.tois further embedded within the reason clauseyoku wakaru.node. Furthermore, that whole combination is further embedded into the adversative coordinate clausememo o toroo to omotta.ga, yielding the complex compositememo o tori.nagara hanasi o kiku.to, yoku wakaru.node, memo o toroo to omotta.ga. Finally, this whole thing is embedded within the main clausenooto ga mitukaranakattaproducing (32).
That is, the structure of the whole of (32) is the layered structure shown below.
(33) [[[[[manner clause] conditional clause] reason clause] coordinate clause]
main clause]
Japanese complex sentences are formed with the clauses taking a layered structure.
As will be touched upon a little bit later on, the grammatical categories a predicate takes are constrained by the degree of embedding of the clause. Fewer grammatical categories can appear in highly subordinate clauses located deep inside. As the degree of subordination decreases, the number of grammatical categories that can appear increases. In the main clause, basically any grammatical category can appear.
5 Grammatical categories appearing in the predicate
A variety of grammatical categories can appear in a verbal sentence. In Japanese, the grammatical categories appear as morphological changes in the words making up the predicate. The term“morphological changes”is used in a broad sense. Morpho- logical changes in Japanese are realized through a variety of morphological means.
Among the morphological changes, there may be alternations in word endings, addition of affixes, or addition of supplementary words.
The types of grammatical categories appearing vary depending on the type of clauses forming the sentence, differences in the parts of speech forming the predicate, or more accurately, differences in the lexical and grammatical type of the predicate, the type of meaning expressed by the sentence, and the sentence type from the view of its speech and communicative function.
Among the grammatical categories appearing in a predicate are: voice, aspect, polarity, tense, cognitive modality, speech and communicative modality, and polite- ness. Among these grammatical categories, there are some whose appearance is heavily influenced by the type of clause the predicate occurs in and some whose appearance is heavily influenced by the lexical and grammatical type of the predicate.
Nitta (2009a) broadly divides the grammatical categories into two types. The grammatical categories whose appearance is constrained by the lexical and gram- matical type of the predicate Nitta (2009a) terms lexico-grammatical categories and those that can appear with a variety of predicate types without regard to lexico- grammatical types he termed pure grammatical categories. Being able to appear with a variety of predicate types means that they can appear not only with verbal predicates but also with adjectival and nominal predicates.