Binding of Indeterminate Pronouns and Clause Structure in Japanese

This article shows, on the basis of indeterminate pronoun binding, that tense-related elements are checked in the checking domain of T and that other elements are checked in the checking domain of the topmost light verb v. The data pertaining to indeterminate pronoun binding, coupled with the data on focus particles, reveal that in Japanese, checking configurations are established in LF. LF movement employed for Case checking is argued to involve the raising of a phrasal category, on the basis that it displays properties different from those of nonphrasal movement in LF. The newly attested data from Japanese lead to the conclusion that constituents can be reordered after “narrow” syntax and that strict locality is required for checking to take place, contrary to Chomsky's (2000, 2001) proposal.