The Journal of Studies in Language ISSN:1225-4770(Print) 2671-6151(Online) 언어연구

This paper investigates incorporation-related phenomena in Japanese, focusing on the distinction between pseudo-incorporation and semantic incorporation. I argue that the diagnostics associated with incorporation should be distinguished according to whether they target morphosyntactic integration or semantic interpretation. Miyagawa-type caseless noun–predicate sequences exhibit properties compatible with phrasal pseudo-incorporation, including case reduction, phrasal complexity, and structural proximity to the predicate. However, their acceptability is variable among contemporary speakers, and the present observations do not conclusively distinguish pseudo-incorporation from a restricted compounding analysis. Ordinary case-marked bare nouns, by contrast, remain morphosyntactically independent. Under narrow-scope interpretations, however, they display a cluster of properties associated with semantic incorporation, including number neutrality, non-specificity, restricted referentiality, and compatibility with atelic interpretations. These properties motivate a semantic incorporation analysis, although alternative semantic accounts are not excluded. Wide-scope bare nouns provide a secondary contrast and appear to involve higher nominal structure, but their fuller analysis lies beyond the scope of this paper. The findings therefore suggest that incorporation in Japanese is grammatically heterogeneous and that morphosyntactic and semantic diagnostics should not be treated as a single undifferentiated set. The analysis is intended as a preliminary step toward a more differentiated account of incorporation-related phenomena in Japanese.