A plausible analysis of the Japanese light verb naru construction - conference paper - Version of Record

Sep 17, 2026

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A conference paper analyzes Japanese light verb constructions formed by a semantically light verb plus a nominal element, focusing on naru ‘become’ with verbal nouns such as benkyoo-n i naru ‘studying-DAT become’. The study contrasts naru’s argument structure with light verb suru ‘do’ analyses, building evidence from syntactic and semantic behavior of arguments and case marking. Results argue that naru takes ‘theme(VN)’ as its argument, resembling non-agentive suru, and further proposes a split into two oblique-argument types depending on modifier requirements.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The light verb naru construction

Core data and syntactic-semantic peculiarities

Analysis of suru and naru argument structure

Semantic characteristics of oblique arguments

Conclusion

PDF issue : 2026-09-17 A p lausible ana lysis of the Japanese l ight verb naru construct ion Yu, Yi le (Citat ion) Proceed ings of the Internat iona l Argument A lternat ion Workshop:99-109 ( Issue Date ) 2026-01-20 ( Resource Type) conference paper (Version) Version of Record (JaLCDOI) [https://doi.org/10.24546/0100499712](https://doi.org/10.24546/0100499712) ( URL) [https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100499712](https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100499712) A plausible analysis of the Japanese light verb naru construction * Yile Yu Shiga University 1. Introduction In a light verb construction, a complex predicate is formed through the combination of a semantically light verb and its argument(s), where the main predicative content is carried by the nominal element, rather than the verb itself (cf. Jespersen 1942) . The main concern of this paper is to provide a plausible analysis of the Japanese light verb construction with naru ‘become’such as benkyoo-ni naru ‘studying-DAT become’ where naru is combined with a verbal noun like benkyoo ‘studying’ followed by a dative case. This type of Japanese light verb construction with naru has not received as much attention as those with suru ‘do’. This paper particularly focuses on what kind of argument structure should be postulated for the light verb naru. To answer this research question, the argument structure of naru is examined and justified by comparing it with the argument structures of the light verb suru discussed in Kishimoto (2019, 2025) . It is concluded that naru takes‘theme(VN)’ as its argument, which is similar with the non-agentive type of suru (Kishimoto 2019, 2025) . This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the core data of the light verb naru construction and shows the syntactic and semantic peculiarities of the current construction. In section 3, it is first shown how suru has been analyzed in previous studies, followed by a discussion of the argument structure of naru, along with the syntactic structure of the light verb naru construction. Section 4 discusses the semantic characteristics of the oblique argument and argues that the light verb naru construction can be divided into two types: one that requires a modifier to the verbal noun and the other type that does not has such a requirement. Section 5 is a conclusion. 2. The light verb naru construction This section first discusses that the constructions like (1) below can be considered as one type of the light verb construction, which has not received much attention. 1 (1) Kaigai-no shikitari-ga John nitotte/no benkyoo-ni na-tta. Foreign-GEN custom-NOM John for/ GEN studying-DAT become-PST ‘(Learning) foreign customs became a learning experience for John.’ The predicate benkyoo-ni naru ‘studying-DAT become’ in (1) consists of a verbal noun benkyoo ‘studying’ and the verb naru ‘become’, forming one type of complex predicates * This paper was presented at The International Argument Alternation Workshop held on July 17, 2025, hosted by the Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University. I would like to thank the participants for their valuable comments. All errors are of course my own. 1 List of abbreviations: ACC=accusative, ALL=allative, COMP=complementizer, CONJ=conjunctive, COP=copula, DAT=dative, GEN=genitive, NEG=negation, NOM=nominative, NMLZ=nominalizer, PST=past, TOP=topic where the main predicative content is carried by the nominal element. This is confirmed by the fact that sentence (1) would be ungrammatical if the verbal noun benkyoo ‘studying’is omitted as shown in (2) . (2) *Kaigai-no shikitari-ga John nitotte/no na-tta. foreign-GEN custom-NOM John for/GEN become-PST Intended: ‘(Learning) foreign customs became a learning experience for John.’ The fact that the semantic burden of (1) relies on the verbal noun can also be confirmed by looking at (3), which shows that the nominative case marked noun kaigai-no shikitari‘

FAQs

What is the main focus of the paper on Japanese light verb constructions?

The paper provides a plausible analysis of the Japanese light verb construction with naru ‘become’, especially how naru combines with verbal nouns like benkyoo ‘studying’ followed by a dative case.

How does the paper compare naru with the light verb suru?

It examines naru’s argument structure by comparing it to argument structures proposed for suru in prior work, using similarities and differences in how arguments are realized.

What argument structure does the paper conclude for naru?

The conclusion states that naru takes ‘theme(VN)’ as its argument, which is similar to the non-agentive type of suru.

Sep 17, 2026

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