Verbal complex formation and negation in Japanese

In this article, predicative elements in Japanese complex predicates are shown to be concatenated into single units via either head movement or PF merger, i.e. morphologically tight complexes are formed with or without syntactic head movement. The two types of morphological units are seen to display a difference as to whether their morphological sequence can be disrupted by an adverbial particle. The negative scope of negative predicates, which varies depending on whether syntactic raising of a negative head to tense is instantiated, confirms that the two types of verbal complex formation need to be distinguished, despite an apparent similarity in their final morphological outputs.

► Particle insertion can be a heuristic for assessing how a verbal complex is formed. ► Negative scope varies depending on the position of a negative head. ► Tense type needs to be identified by a predicate.