A NON-EXCEPTIONAL APPROACH TO EXCEPTIONAL CASE-MARKING IN JAPANESE

Abstract

Japanese has Multiple Object Constructions because the transitive light verb v can multiply agree with its objects. By virtue of this property of the transitive light verb v, Japanese also has ECM Constructions with finite complement clauses. When the matrix v has multiple EPP-features, the whole complement clause is first attracted to the matrix vP-Spec, followed by subsequent Attract of the embedded accusative subject to the outer-Spec of v. Rich productivity of the construction follows from the fact that it only makes use of the general devices of the language. With such devices being unavailable, English ECM Constructions are lexically-specified and void of such rich productivity.