A Modifier Hypothesis on the Japanese Indeterminate Quantifier Phrase

Abstract

Shimoyama’s [20, 21] analysis of the Japanese indeterminate quantifier construction (e.g. dono gakusei-mo odotta. ‘Every student danced’) is superior to previous analyses in the sense that it closely adheres to the Principle of Compositionality. However, under this analysis the mo-phrase of the form [[...wh...]_NP-mo], is analyzed as a generalized quantifier of semantic type < < e,t > ,t >, and this gives rise to a type-theoretical problem. In order to overcome the difficulties, this paper proposes an alternative analysis in which the mo-phrase is treated as a modifier of semantic type < < e,t > , < e,t > >. It also discusses sentences in which mo combines with a PP and an IP and argues that here the modifier hypothesis of the mo-phrase can still be maintained.