Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/34567

In this article, I examine the structure of the so-called Raising to Object construction in Japanese exemplified in (1), and claim that the accusative NP is base-generated in the Spec of Topic in the embedded clause and assigned its Case from the matrix verb. (1) Taroo-wa Hanako-o baka da to omotteiru. Taroo-NOM Hanako-ACC stupid COP COMP think ‘Taroo considers Hanako to be stupid.’ Hiraiwa (2005) has shown that the accusative NP in (1) can stay in the embedded clause, more specifically, in the c-command domain of the embedded C. Starting from this observation, I explore where the accusative NP is base-generated in the embedded clause. Within the minimalist framework proposed in Chomsky's recent works, I consider Case valuation of the accusative NP in the phase theory and point out a number of theoretical problems with Hiraiwa's assumption that the accusative NP is base-generated within the embedded TP and then moves to some higher position between TP and CP. These problems suggest that the accusative NP is base-generated above the embedded TP, its Case being valued by the matrix verb. Next, I present some empirical evidence that this conjecture is in fact true: the lack of reconstruction effects of the accusative NP. Finally, I adopt Rizzi's fine structure of the C system and give evidence that the accusative NP is base-generated in the Spec of the topmost Topic in the left periphery of the embedded clause.