Arguments against head‐stranding ellipsis in Japanese: A reply to Funakoshi (2016)

Abstract Whether syntactic head movement exists in Japanese has been hotly debated because of the strictly head‐final character of the language. This paper addresses this issue, focusing on data regarding null adjuncts. We demonstrate that the head‐stranding ellipsis (HSE) analysis of null adjuncts is not conclusive. To achieve this, we show that null adjuncts are more widely observed than the HSE analysis predicts. Specifically, we provide a new set of data that challenges Funakoshi's (2016) generalization regarding null adjuncts, which he claims his verb‐stranding VP‐ellipsis analysis explains. We also present a novel observation that some null adjuncts take scope over negation, contrary to what the HSE analysis predicts. Furthermore, we show that null adjuncts are derived even if the verb does not raise. Given these findings, we explore alternative analyses of null adjuncts that do not assume head movement. In particular, we discuss the pragmatic enrichment analysis as well as the adjunct ellipsis analysis, and suggest that the distribution of null adjuncts is better analyzed by a pragmatic account in line with Landau (2023). This paper concludes that any arguments for head movement based on the HSE analysis of null adjuncts are inconclusive at best.