A Challenge to Nishigauchi’s (2016) Analysis of the Specificational Sentencein terms of the ‘Core Noun Phrase’

Abstract

The present article discusses Nishigauchi’s (2016) analysis of the specificational sentence and related constructions in terms of what he calls ‘Core Noun Phrases.’ Core Noun Phrases, according to Nishigauchi, demand both outer and inner arguments; the former delimits the semantic domain of the head Noun while the latter exhaustively specifies the semantic content of the head Noun as delimited by the outer argument. We point out four problems in his analysis: (i) it cannot explain specificational sentences which lack the outer argument, (ii) the alleged exhaustiveness of the specification is not empirically justified, (iii) the notion of ‘discourse operator’ makes wrong predictions, (iv) his analysis of backward binding phenomena misses significant generalizations. From these observations, we argue that his analysis is inadequate for an analysis of the specificational sentence and related constructions such as the kaki ryori construction. We further argue that the theoretical notion ‘Noun Phrases Involving a Variable’ (NPIV; Nishiyama 2003) is crucial in the analysis of the specificational sentence and related constructions, and that the extended notion of Saturated/Unsaturated Nouns (Nishiyama 2003) is indispensable for the adequate analysis of the kaki ryori construction.