JAPANESE FOCUS PARTICLES AT THE SYNTAX-SEMANTICS INTERFACE 
                           by 
                        YOKO FUTAGI 
                     A Dissertation submitted to the 
                     Graduate School-New Brunswick 
                   Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 
                   in partial fulfillment of the requirements 
                        for the degree of 
                       Doctor of Philosophy 
                     Graduate Program in Linguistics 
                      written under the direction of 
                         Veneeta Dayal 
                        and approved by 
                    ________________________ 
                    ________________________ 
                    ________________________ 
                    ________________________ 
                            
                      New Brunswick, New Jersey 
                         October, 2004 
                            
          
                   ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION 
                Japanese Focus Particles at the Syntax-Semantics Interface 
                       by YOKO FUTAGI 
                       Dissertation Director: 
                         Veneeta Dayal 
                            
            This dissertation centers around the syntax and semantics of the so-called focus-
         sensitive particles  (FSP) in Japanese, such as –dake ‘only’.  The first part deals with the 
         scope interaction between –dake and modals, which is affected by the order between 
         P(ostposition) and -dake.  I argue that –dake’s scope is determined by –dake’s 
         morphological ambiguity between a noun and a particle.  The particle –dake appears after 
         P and must move at LF to the Spec of Particle Phrase above the modal; this results in the 
         fixed wide-scope of –dake.  The noun -dake is not subjected to this movement; its scope 
         ambiguity results from the optional V-to-I raising, which, when it takes place, 
         semantically lowers the modal into the scope of –dake.  This proposal differs from the 
         previous accounts, which attributed such scope ambiguity to Quantifier Raising or other 
         similar mechanisms. 
            The second part deals with the semantics/pragmatics of the Japanese FSP.  First, 
         the (in)compatibility between FSP and the topic-marker –wa is discussed.  I propose a 
         semantic/pragmatic account which uniformly explains the incompatibility between 
         sae/mo/shika ‘even/also/except’ and –wa, and the compatibility between –dake and –wa.  
         Then, the scalar implicatures of –dake and –wa are discussed.  It is shown that the 
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         contribution made by the scalar implicature of each is independent from that of the other.  
         A scalar semantics of –dake is suggested. 
            The dissertation ends with a discussion of two related issues:  the interaction 
         between -dake and adverbs of quantification, and the difference among modals w.r.t. 
         scope interaction with –dake. 
            The issues explored in this dissertation raise interesting questions about the nature 
         of scopal relations in so-called “rigid-scope” languages such as Japanese.  The scope 
         ambiguity between -dake and the modal defies this conventional categorization, and calls 
         into question the notion of the “rigidity of scope”. They also contribute to our 
         understanding of cross-linguistic variation in natural language by investigating the 
         semantics and pragmatics of Japanese FSP which have uses that do not directly 
         correspond to the English only, even, etc., as well as ones that do.  A closer look into such 
         variations will help to better understand the nature of the universal grammar. 
          
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                      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
                            
            I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude toward the many 
         people who helped me manage not to lose sight of my goal throughout the long and 
         winding road of the graduate school. 
            First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Veneeta Dayal.  There are 
         great many things that I would like to thank her for; her patience, consideration, gentle 
         nudging when I slowed down, and so on.  But probably the kindest thing she did for me 
         was not letting me give up when the going got really tough, and doing it not only as an 
         advisor, but also as a friend. 
            I not only greatly enjoyed working with Ken Safir thanks to his sense of humor, 
         but also very much benefited from his vast knowledge of the linguistic literature.  I am 
         also very grateful to him for introducing me to the wonderful world of gardening, which 
         really helped me keep my sanity. 
             Roger Schwarzschild always amazed me with the amount of attention he gives to 
         everything I wrote or said.  With his quick grasp of what I was trying to say, or what I 
         should have been trying to say, meeting with him was rather energy-consuming, but very 
         helpful.  Whatever the topic was, talking to him was always an enlightening experience. 
            I am greatly indebted to Satoshi Tomioka.  Without his comments on how my 
         piece of Japanese data might contribute to the field, this dissertation would not have 
         come into shape, at least not when it did.  His explanations, suggestions and comments 
         were always very clear and realistic, for which I am very grateful. 
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