Some Notes on Atomicity and Distributivity in Japanese

We re-examine the semantic relation between atomicity and distributivity, which are considered relevant to the floating numeral quantifier construction (FNQ) in Japanese. It is shown that FNQ interpretation, distributive or non-distributive, may be to a large extent determined by pragmatic factors (including intonation) and real world knowledge shared by the speaker and hearer, rather than syntactic factors alone. This paper attempts the following three things: (i) it claims that there is a particular FNQ construction in Japanese, which is “NP-related” (unlike the normal FNQ construction which gives rise to a distributive reading, which is “VP-related”). (ii) It claims that this particular construction gives rise to a special focus reading. (iii) It offers a semantic/pragmatic account of this non-distributive reading.

Why are L2 learners not always sensitive to subject-verb agreement?

This study investigates whether intermediate Japanese learners of English (JLE) show any variability in sensitivity to the overuse of 3rd person singular (3sg) -s and if they do, what the causes may be. The results of the experiment indicate that JLE do exhibit variability: JLE showed sensitivity to ungrammaticality caused by a discrepancy in person features between subjects and verbs. In addition, they were sensitive to number feature disagreement when the plurality of subjects was expressed syntactically, namely, by using the conjunction and (e.g., Tim and Paul), by the demonstrative these and by a numeral quantifier (e.g., these two secretaries). However, they were not sensitive to such disagreement when subjects were marked only by plural -s (e.g., The chefs). Based on these results, we suggest that the failure of JLE to use 3sg -s may not lie in the difficulty of subject–verb agreement, but in the detection of the number feature of sentential subjects. We suggest that intermediate JLE have problems both with the number feature at the lexicon/syntax level and with its morphological mapping at the level of morphology.