The present study is concerned with the proper representation of events, and argues for a new model of event representation, which is referred to as the “parallel event structure (PES).” The PES plots time on the horizontal dimension, and has two or more tiers aligned on the vertical dimension, each of which encodes a certain type of event (e.g. action/change). This multi-tiered structure represents three types of information on the two dimensions: it mainly represents (i) force-dynamic information (the exertion of energy and its effect) vertically, (ii) simple aspectual information (the temporal evolution of each subevent) horizontally, and (iii) complex aspectual information (two or more subevents’ parallel unfolding over time) two-dimensionally. It also represents the flow of time and the unfolding of (the subevents of) an event in terms of scale, thereby capturing their homomorphism as well as parallelism. This article argues that the PES is preferable to alternative models of event representation in terms of descriptive power and uniformity/coherence, showing that it clearly delineates various types of events from one another while capturing their commonalities in a uniform and coherent way. Empirical evidence is adduced primarily from verbal and adverbial expressions in English. Theoretical issues revolving around event structure are also discussed, which include force-dynamics, aspect, telicity, and scale structure.

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This paper investigates the sluicing construction in English. It has been assumed by Merchant (2008) among others that remnant wh-phrases in sluicing undergo wh-movement, just as in non-elided cases. By demonstrating that remnant wh-phrases in sluicing show the same behaviors as wh-phrases in situ, on the other hand, I argue that remnant wh-phrases can be in situ at least in certain cases, introducing the movement theory by Agbayani (2000,2006) and Agbayani and Ochi (2006), which is consistent with the wh-in-situ analysis of sluicing. The wh-in-situ analysis proposed in this paper gives a new perspective to the language parameter regarding wh-movement in that wh-in-situ strategy can operate in English single wh-questions.

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This brief article considers Japanese clause-internal scrambling and proposes an analysis which explains both of its A-movement and A′-movement properties. Based on the proposed analysis (scrambling as “quasi”-raising), we rethink the movement operation, claiming that scrambling is the most basic or barest form of movement in syntax. We also discuss favorable theoretical consequences of the proposed analysis for movement.

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The aim of this paper is to reconsider and revise the classification of prefixes and particles added to OE verbs, proposed in Niwa (1991, 1995), comparing it with Hiltunen’s classification and referring to an approach within generative grammar. We argue that (i) prefixes and particles with a prepositional function play as important a role as ones with an adverbial function and that (ii) prefixes added to OE verbs can be subdivided into nonfixed ones and fixed ones. We found that for (i), while Hiltunen disregards it, generative grammar supports it. In the case of (ii), while Hiltunen agrees with it, though using different terms, generative grammar does not allow it on the basis of the principle of economy.

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Such there-sentences as There is a man wants to see you are called the There-Amalgam. While until now there have been two vying hypotheses to explain the construction, by far the dominant hypothesis has been that it consists of two clauses (i.e. [There is a man] + [A man wants to see you]). The second hypothesis that there be in There-Amalgams is some kind of particle has hardly been accepted. In this paper, I present some stronger supporting evidence for this minor hypothesis than has ever before been seen with the help of the BNC, and argue that the particle-type as well as the amalgam-type does exist.

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This paper examines four articles out of the volume, focusing on the following issues: (i) preference for pronunciation of the topmost copy, (ii) implementation of copy deletion/realization within the phase-based model, and (iii) motivation for morphological reanalysis of copies. While Bošković and Nunes derive (i) from economy considerations, Van Koppen attempts to reduce it to an asymmetry between copies with respect to their feature structures. Addressing the issue (ii), Fujii attempts to accommodate copy deletion within the phase-based framework. Kandybowicz discusses (iii) and demonstrates that morphological reanalysis occurs only when it is phonologically triggered. After examining some advantages and disadvantages of these studies, this paper suggests an alternative analysis that deals with the three issues.

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