Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English

Hideki Hamamoto

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14

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Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English

Hideki Hamamoto

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 10, Issue 4)

Received: 11 July 2022 Accepted: 1 August 2022 Published: 10 August 2022

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Abstract

In current studies of resultative constructions, there are broadly two basic subclasses: weak and strong resultatives. It has been said that there are weak resultatives in Japanese but no strong resultatives. However, even in Japanese, compound verbs and sentences with an equative relation marker hodo can be used to express the content close to English strong resultatives. Surprisingly, the patterns observed in Japanese resultatives find the corresponding ones in Romanian. Romanian (and Italian, with slight differences) also have weak resultatives but no strong resultatives. By adding the words până (ce), which roughly corresponds to "as far as/up to/until," some strong resultatives will be acceptable (Farkas 2009, 2016). This paper focuses on similar phenomena observed in these languages. First, we clarify the meaning of the Japanese equative expression hodo, "as far as/up to." Second, we will compare Japanese hodo and Romanian până. Careful observation of these cases reveals that at least some cases, which have been considered resultatives, should be treated as "equative constructions." This idea is further supported by the fact that the logical operator CAUSE used to represent the causality is not appropriate for constructions of our interest. We also propose that some English resultatives with an incomplete resultative state that works more as a degree modifier than a resulting state may be better analyzed as an equative construction.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 10, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14
Page(s)	248-259
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Compound Verbs, Construction Grammar, Equative Constructions, Hume’s Regularity Theory of Causation, Lewis’ Counterfactual Theory of Causation, Resultative Constructions

References

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[2]	Bittner, M. 1999: ‘Concealed Causatives,’ Natural Language Semantics 7, 1-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008313608525
[3]	Chierchia, G. 2013: Logic in Grammar: Polarity, free choice, and intervention. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
[4]	Collins, J., Hall, N. & Paul, L. A. 2004: Counterfactuals and Causation: History, Problems, and Prospects. In J. Collins, N. Hall, & L. A. Paul (Eds.), Causation and Counterfactuals (pp. 1-57). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[5]	Dowty, D. R. 1979: Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Boston, MA: Reidel Publishing Company.
[6]	Farkas, I-A. 2009: ‘Some difference between English and Romanian resultatives constructions,’ BWPL.
[7]	Farkas, I-A. 2013: Resultative constructions in English and Romanian: A comparative analysis ISBN: 978-973-595-616-5.
[8]	Goldberg, A. E. & Jackendoff, R. 2004: ‘The English Resultative as a Family of Constructions,’ Language, 80: 532-568. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2004.0129
[9]	Hamamoto, H. 2022: ‘English and Japanese Resultatives,’ International Journal of English and Cultural Studies, vol. 5 no. 1 44-58.
[10]	Hume, D. 2000a/1739: A Treatise of Human Nature. D. E. Norton, & M. J. Norton (Eds.) Oxford Philosophical Texts. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
[11]	Hume, D. 2000b/1748: An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. D. E. Norton, & M. J. Norton (Eds.) Oxford Philosophical Texts. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
[12]	Iwata, S. 2019: English Resultatives A force-recipient account. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
[13]	Kennedy, C. & McNally, L. 2005: Scale structure, degree modification, and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language, vol. 81, no. 2, 345-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2005.0071
[14]	Kratzer, A. 2005: ‘Building resultatives,’ In Maienborn, C. & Wollstein-Leisen, A. (Eds.) Events in syntax, semantics, and discourse (pp. 177-212). Berlin: Niemeyer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110913798.177
[15]	Lewis, D. 1973: Counterfactuals. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
[16]	Li, C. 2014: A Three-Way Distinction of English Resultatives and Its implication for Resultative Typology, Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 40. 2: 1-28.
[17]	Psillos, S. 2009: Regularity Theories. In Helen, B. Hitchcook, C. & Menzies, P. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Causation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
[18]	Simpson, J. 1983: ‘Resultatives,’ In Levin, L. Rappaport, M. & A. Zaenen (Eds.) Papers in Lexical-Functional Grammar (pp. 143-157). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
[19]	Tanaka, E. 2022: ‘Amazing-HODO,’ In Gotzner, N. and Sauerland(eds.) Measuremnts, Numerals and Scales, Parlgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Language and Cognition.
[20]	Tanaka, E. Mizutani, K. and Solt, S. 2019: ‘Existential semantics in equatives in Japanese and German,’ In Proceedings of the 22nd Amsterdam Colloquium. 377-386.
[21]	Tanaka, E. Mizutani, K. and Solt, S. 2020: ‘Equative hodo and the polarity effects of existential semantics,’ New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence: JSAI-AI International Workshops, JURISIN, AI-Biz, LENLS, Kansei-AI yokohama, Japan.
[22]	Washio, R. 1997: ‘Resultatives, compositionality and language variation,’ Journal of East Asia Linguistics, 6: 1-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008257704110

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Hideki Hamamoto. (2022). Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 10(4), 248-259. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14

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Hideki Hamamoto. Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2022, 10(4), 248-259. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14

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AMA Style

Hideki Hamamoto. Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English. Int J Lang Linguist. 2022;10(4):248-259. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14,
  author = {Hideki Hamamoto},
  title = {Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {10},
  number = {4},
  pages = {248-259},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20221004.14},
  abstract = {In current studies of resultative constructions, there are broadly two basic subclasses: weak and strong resultatives. It has been said that there are weak resultatives in Japanese but no strong resultatives. However, even in Japanese, compound verbs and sentences with an equative relation marker hodo can be used to express the content close to English strong resultatives. Surprisingly, the patterns observed in Japanese resultatives find the corresponding ones in Romanian. Romanian (and Italian, with slight differences) also have weak resultatives but no strong resultatives. By adding the words până (ce), which roughly corresponds to "as far as/up to/until," some strong resultatives will be acceptable (Farkas 2009, 2016). This paper focuses on similar phenomena observed in these languages. First, we clarify the meaning of the Japanese equative expression hodo, "as far as/up to." Second, we will compare Japanese hodo and Romanian până. Careful observation of these cases reveals that at least some cases, which have been considered resultatives, should be treated as "equative constructions." This idea is further supported by the fact that the logical operator CAUSE used to represent the causality is not appropriate for constructions of our interest. We also propose that some English resultatives with an incomplete resultative state that works more as a degree modifier than a resulting state may be better analyzed as an equative construction.},
 year = {2022}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English
AU  - Hideki Hamamoto
Y1  - 2022/08/10
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 248
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PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14
AB  - In current studies of resultative constructions, there are broadly two basic subclasses: weak and strong resultatives. It has been said that there are weak resultatives in Japanese but no strong resultatives. However, even in Japanese, compound verbs and sentences with an equative relation marker hodo can be used to express the content close to English strong resultatives. Surprisingly, the patterns observed in Japanese resultatives find the corresponding ones in Romanian. Romanian (and Italian, with slight differences) also have weak resultatives but no strong resultatives. By adding the words până (ce), which roughly corresponds to "as far as/up to/until," some strong resultatives will be acceptable (Farkas 2009, 2016). This paper focuses on similar phenomena observed in these languages. First, we clarify the meaning of the Japanese equative expression hodo, "as far as/up to." Second, we will compare Japanese hodo and Romanian până. Careful observation of these cases reveals that at least some cases, which have been considered resultatives, should be treated as "equative constructions." This idea is further supported by the fact that the logical operator CAUSE used to represent the causality is not appropriate for constructions of our interest. We also propose that some English resultatives with an incomplete resultative state that works more as a degree modifier than a resulting state may be better analyzed as an equative construction.
VL  - 10
IS  - 4
ER  -

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Author Information

Hideki Hamamoto

Department of International Studies, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan

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APA Style

Hideki Hamamoto. (2022). Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 10(4), 248-259. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14

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ACS Style

Hideki Hamamoto. Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2022, 10(4), 248-259. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14

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AMA Style

Hideki Hamamoto. Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English. Int J Lang Linguist. 2022;10(4):248-259. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14,
  author = {Hideki Hamamoto},
  title = {Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {10},
  number = {4},
  pages = {248-259},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20221004.14},
  abstract = {In current studies of resultative constructions, there are broadly two basic subclasses: weak and strong resultatives. It has been said that there are weak resultatives in Japanese but no strong resultatives. However, even in Japanese, compound verbs and sentences with an equative relation marker hodo can be used to express the content close to English strong resultatives. Surprisingly, the patterns observed in Japanese resultatives find the corresponding ones in Romanian. Romanian (and Italian, with slight differences) also have weak resultatives but no strong resultatives. By adding the words până (ce), which roughly corresponds to "as far as/up to/until," some strong resultatives will be acceptable (Farkas 2009, 2016). This paper focuses on similar phenomena observed in these languages. First, we clarify the meaning of the Japanese equative expression hodo, "as far as/up to." Second, we will compare Japanese hodo and Romanian până. Careful observation of these cases reveals that at least some cases, which have been considered resultatives, should be treated as "equative constructions." This idea is further supported by the fact that the logical operator CAUSE used to represent the causality is not appropriate for constructions of our interest. We also propose that some English resultatives with an incomplete resultative state that works more as a degree modifier than a resulting state may be better analyzed as an equative construction.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Resultatives as an Equative Construction: Evidence from Japanese and Romanian, and Its Implication for English
AU  - Hideki Hamamoto
Y1  - 2022/08/10
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 248
EP  - 259
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221004.14
AB  - In current studies of resultative constructions, there are broadly two basic subclasses: weak and strong resultatives. It has been said that there are weak resultatives in Japanese but no strong resultatives. However, even in Japanese, compound verbs and sentences with an equative relation marker hodo can be used to express the content close to English strong resultatives. Surprisingly, the patterns observed in Japanese resultatives find the corresponding ones in Romanian. Romanian (and Italian, with slight differences) also have weak resultatives but no strong resultatives. By adding the words până (ce), which roughly corresponds to "as far as/up to/until," some strong resultatives will be acceptable (Farkas 2009, 2016). This paper focuses on similar phenomena observed in these languages. First, we clarify the meaning of the Japanese equative expression hodo, "as far as/up to." Second, we will compare Japanese hodo and Romanian până. Careful observation of these cases reveals that at least some cases, which have been considered resultatives, should be treated as "equative constructions." This idea is further supported by the fact that the logical operator CAUSE used to represent the causality is not appropriate for constructions of our interest. We also propose that some English resultatives with an incomplete resultative state that works more as a degree modifier than a resulting state may be better analyzed as an equative construction.
VL  - 10
IS  - 4
ER  -

Copy | Download