Handbook of Japanese Linguistics

Written by an international assembly of linguists, this handbook brings together major aspects of Japanese linguistics, presenting an overview of key topics. The areas covered are phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, language acquisition, sentence processing, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. Chapters one to four deal with phonology including autosegmental theory, optimality theory and phonological variation. Chapters five to eight examine several topics in syntax that have made significant contribution to the development of syntactic theories. Chapters nine to 12 present interface areas with aspects of syntax, semantics, and morphology. Chapters 13-14 introduce psycholinguistics research ranging from first language acquisition to sentence processing. Chapters 15-16 consider discourse analysis and sociological aspects of the Japanese language. Each chapter contains an overview of the topic, current concerns and future directions. This handbook is intended for those who are familiar with the topic at the basic level and wish to investigate it in more detail, but it can also be used as a language-specific and typological reference.