The aim of this paper is to present a theory that explicitly characterizes patterns of summative agreement. The proposed theory builds on my own theory of PNR, presented in Yatabe 2001, and is based on the view that agreement results from a non-lexical constraint that regulates under what circumstances a domain object can be merged with other domain objects by the compaction operation.
In this paper, I compare the ellipsis-based theory of non-constituent coordination proposed in
Yatabe (2001) with three of its alternatives, namely the theory that has been widely accepted within
the context of Categorial Grammar, Mouret's HPSG-based theory, and the theory proposed by Bachrach
and Katzir in the framework of the Minimalist Program. It is found (i) that the CG-based theory of
non-constituent coordination cannot deal with medial RNR, i.e. a subset of right-node raising
constructions in which either all or a part of the right-node-raised material is realized at a
location other than the right edge of the final conjunct, (ii) that Mouret's theory encounters
similar difficulties when applied to RNR, and (iii) that Bachrach and Katzir's theory cannot be
applied to left-node raising in English, has difficulty capturing the semantic inertness of medial
RNR, and overgenerates in several ways. The ellipsis-based theory, on the other hand, appears to be
consistent with all the observations.
In this paper, I argue (i) that Japanese has constructions that are almost the exact mirror images of the right-node raising constructions in English, and (ii) that the properties of those constructions, which I refer to as left-node raising constructions, can be captured straightforwardly if and only if the CONTENT values of domain objects, not those of signs, are assumed to be the principal locus of meaning assembly. In the theory proposed, it is claimed that semantic composition (including "quantifier retrieval") takes place not when some signs are syntactically combined to produce a new, larger sign but when some domain objects (which are essentially prosodic constituents) are merged (by the total or partial compaction operation) to produce a new domain object (i.e. a new, larger prosodic constituent).
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