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Presuppositions and Comparison Classes in Japanese hodo-equatives

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New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (JSAI-isAI 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 13856))

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Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis of a Japanese equative marker hodo in terms of a delineation theory of gradable adjectives. Hodo-equatives are associated with a norm-related presupposition where the complement of hodo exceeds a degree of standard, but the norm-relatedness is flipped when mo “even” is appended to hodo. We propose that hodo takes a comparison class as one of its arguments and argue that this delineation-based analysis of hodo successfully captures the flipped norm-related implication.

This project has been supported by “On Development of Logical Language and Mathematical Concepts”, Osaka University International Joint Research Program (A), (Principal Investigator: Yoichi Miyamoto) and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 21K00525 (Principal Investigator: Eri Tanaka).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Comparatives are classified into explicit and implicit varieties [7]. Explicit comparatives, in contrast to implicit comparatives, do not produce a norm-relatedness. In Japanese, yori-comparatives are considered to be an explicit one [15].

  2. 2.

    One could argue against this analysis based on [1]. Alternatively we could utilize the analysis by [6] to produce the same effect.

  3. 3.

    See [16,17,18] for the properties of clausal hodo.

  4. 4.

    A reviewer inquired whether the comparison class may be linguistically realized. Our tentative answer would be positive, because a possible candidate for an expression of an explicit comparison class, -nisitewa “for X” could co-occur with hodo-sentences.

    figure o

    .

  5. 5.

    In other words, to assert that there is a degree function that violates (14) does not make much meaning.

  6. 6.

    Alternatively, we could explain the elided presuppositional effects of hodo by the adjustment of the anaphoric comparison class C*: C* is constrained to be the one that induces no conflict with the presupposition of mo. We could accommodate C* such that C* makes Jiro tall but he is not tall in C’. Thus as far as we can supply C* that makes 165-cm tall Jiro tall, the presupposition of hodo is satisfied. In other words, C’ that makes Jiro not-tall coerces C* to be identified by such comparison class.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan

    Eri Tanaka

  2. Aichi Prefectural University, Nagakute, Aichi, Japan

    Kenta Mizutani

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  1. Eri Tanaka
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  2. Kenta Mizutani
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Correspondence to Eri Tanaka .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kansai University, Suita, Japan

    Katsutoshi Yada

  2. Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan

    Yasufumi Takama

  3. Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Koji Mineshima

  4. National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan

    Ken Satoh

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Tanaka, E., Mizutani, K. (2023). Presuppositions and Comparison Classes in Japanese hodo-equatives. In: Yada, K., Takama, Y., Mineshima, K., Satoh, K. (eds) New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. JSAI-isAI 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13856. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36190-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36190-6_11

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