Re: I need some help from native speakers of Japanese

Ray wrote:

I just need you to construct some sentences as per the instructions
given, to verify a theoretical proposal.

Let me make a re-start on my question.

In English, Wh-questions are formed by fronting Wh-phrases to
sentence-initial position.
In Chinese and Japanese, such phrases stay in situ, i.e. they don't
move anywhere if one wants to form Wh-questions.

Now, there is a constraint in English Wh-question formation, to the
effect that an element, e.g. an NP or otherwise, in an adverbial
clause, be it causal, concessive or otherwise, cannot be moved out of
it. This captures the ungrammaticality of the following sentence:
(the letter "t" indicates the position which "where" occupied before
the movementt; the square brackets delimit the adverbial clause.)

1. *Where do you think that he was unhappy [because he saw his enemy
t]?

On the other hand, an element can be moved out of a non-adverbial
clause:
(the square brackets indicate the clause)

2. What do you think [that he has eaten t]?

In Chinese, although Wh-phrases don't move as in English, questions
with the meaning of 1 are ungrammatical, whereas those of the 2nd type
are correct.

I want to know whether the situation of Japanese is like Chinese, i.e.
whether sentences like 1 are ungrammatical.

Cindy gave a version of it like mine, with the (unnecessary?) placement
of the "where" first, and topicalizing the "he," namely [my glosses]:
doko-de kare-wa teki-ni deat-te fushiawase-ni natta-to
where-at he-no enemy-dat come upon-and unhappy-dat became-quote

omoimasu-ka
(you) think-?

and said it made sense, which seems like it should answer your question.

Have you looked at Natsuko(?) Tsujimura, _Introduction to Japanese
Linguistics_? She's quite into government and binding, and discusses
this kind of thing, as I recall. (I used the book the last two or three
times I taught Japanese linguistics, but I can't tell at a glance
whether I kept the book when I retired.)

How would the bad Chinese go? Start something like "ni xiang ta nar ..."?

So far as I know, you can leave the interrogative in no matter how
deeply embedded the clause in Japanese, and still get an acceptable
sentence.

Bart
.

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