ABSTRACT
Although the traditional term “function words” or Chomsky's (1970) notion of “non-lexical categories” has much in common with the contemporary notion of “functional categories”, it seems fair to say that it is since the mid-1980s, when a class of elements was given the name “functional categories/elements” (Fukui 1986, Speas 1986, Abney 1987, among others) and their properties were first discussed in detail, that these elements have been a focus of much attention within the context of universal grammar (UG). The importance of these elements for the theory of grammar comes from the fact that (i) they are taken to be the sources of driving force for movement transformations, and (ii) they are also identified as a locus of cross-linguistic variation. Thus, ever since the notion was (re-)introduced in the mid-1980s, much syntactic discussion has been centring on the nature and properties of functional categories as they pertain to UG as well as to characterization of particular grammars. Japanese syntax is no exception, which is why we wish to discuss in this article some of the main issues concerning “functional categories in Japanese”.
