SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The passive construction has played an important role, in different ways, in various types of grammatical framework. It has motivated Chomsky to introduce transformations and the basic concept of the deep and surface structures. It has also contributed to the foundation of Relational Grammar and to that of Bresnan's realistic model (1978). In the literature of Japanese linguistics the passive construction is also one of the topics that has been discussed to a great extent. There have been two major contrasting theories proposed for Japanese passives within the standard transformational framework: Uniform and Nonuniform Theory. The main aim of this thesis is to propose a theory which can account for more facts about Japanese passives than those above. Revised Uniform Theory (R.U.T.) is introduced for this purpose. The proposal of a theory such as R.U.T. is not totally new in respect of the deep structure of passives, since Inoue (1976) has proposed a comparable theory in this respect. However, in this thesis a different passive rule is argued for with a correspondingly different analysis of the surface structure from Inoue's. In particular it is shown that certain passive sentences cannot be accounted for by the rule based on Inoue's (or by any other rule which derives a passive subject solely from an object of an active sentence in one way or another). As a result Passive- Raising is proposed. In the course of the discussion, it is shown that it is necessary to incorporate the interpretive approach of adverbs into the Extended Standard Theory. The rules are designed to apply according to Pullum's (1976) notion of the Universally Determined Rule Application principle. Two arguments concerning passives (by Kuroda 1965 and by Kuno 1976) are then re-considered from the point of view of R.U.T. In addition, the causative construction is discussed in relation to passives and Chomsky's (1973/ 75/76) conditions on transformations are examined on the basis of Passive-Raising. It is shown that his conditions do not hold in Japanese.