The Syntax of Manner Adverbs and Resultative Predicates in Japanese

Abstract

As in the sentence Zatsu-ni kami-o akaku someta (I dyed my hair red roughly.), the manner adverb zatsu-ni (roughly) and the resultative predicate akaku (red) can co-occur in a sentence. However, the reversed word order of zatsu-ni and akaku, *Akaku zatsu-ni kami-o someta, becomes ungrammatical. Close examination of the data suggests that when a manner adverb and a resultative predicate co-occur, the syntactic anti-c-command condition given in (i) must be observed.

(i) Anti-c-command condition:

The manner adverb must not be c-commanded by the resultative predicate.