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[44393] Hajime Hoji May/09/2014 (Fri) 11:01
Issues on Anaphora in Japanese to be reexamined in light of Language Faculty Science
As announced in "What's New" on 2/26/2014, a book containing 7 of my past papers has recently been published in Japan (Ohsumi Shoten).
It contains the following papers:

Chapter 1: Demonstrative Binding and Principle B
Chapter 2: Null Object and Sloppy Identity in Japanese
Chapter 3: Sloppy Identity and Formal Dependency
Chapter 4: Sloppy Identity and Principle B
Chapter 5: Formal Dependency, Organization of Grammar, and Japanese Demonstratives
Chapter 6: Surface and Deep Anaphora, Sloppy Identity, and Experiments in Syntax
Chapter 7: Falsifiability and Repeatability in Generative Grammar: A Case Study of Anaphora and Scope Dependency in Japanese

It has an Index, which is very useful to have, well, at least for me.

If you can read Japanese, you can visit this page and read the Preface/Forward by Yuki Takubo and the Epilogue (Atogaki) and one other piece by Ayumi Ueyama.

Among the main empirical issues addressed in those papers are "sloppy-identity" readings and local disjointness effects (i.e., so-called Binding Principle B effects).

As discussed in some depth in the paper reproduced as Chapter 6 of that volume (also addressed in other papers), it is difficult to (i) deduce a definite and testable predictions having to do with "ellipsis" and (ii) design an experiment and (iii) obtain experimental results in accordance with the definite predictions we make. Chapter 6 of the volume is an attempt to pursue rigorous testability, which was not possible in Chapter 2 of the volume for a principled reason. Well, it is not easy to do that, especially (iii), even when we deal with "phenomena" not involving "ellipsis." My forthcoming book Language Faculty Science addresses how we can do (i)-(iii), but its empirical illustration does not involve "ellipsis."

Because of the realization, as the result of the research reported in Chapter 6 of the volume noted above (among other papers), that we face immense difficulty in trying to do (i)-(iii) above, dealing with "ellipsis," I have been focusing on what is more manageable than "ellipsis" since my work on Chapter 6 (around 2000 -- Chapter 6 was published in 2003 but its draft was written around 2000).

Once Language Faculty Science is published (which will be around the summer of 2015) and an introductory book on language faculty science has is prepared, I will try to return to "sloppy-identity" readings and local disjointness effects (i.e., so-called Binding Principle B effects), in light of the methodological proposal made in Language Faculty Science.

Such works will clarify how the papers included in the volume mentioned above try to make definite and testable predictions and what difficulty it is faced with. The difficulty is not just about designing a set of Experiments and obtaining Experimental results in accordance with the definite and categorical predictions. It is also about how to deduce such definite predictions.

With the methodological and conceptual articulation for language faculty science (as an exact science) and with its empirical (i.e., experimental) illustration provided in Language Faculty Science, I think I will be in a position to do that.

It has taken me a long time to get to this point, but I think the work for the past 10 years was necessary.

References :
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Follow-Ups :
[44719] Hajime Hoji Oct/21/2014 (03:05)Started preparing postscripts for papers in the Ohsumi volume
[44752] Hajime Hoji Nov/01/2014 (09:52)Has been moved from the General Remarks board
[45106] Hajime Hoji Jul/23/2015 (06:44)Preface instead of Postscript