Research Topics
1. Parameters and Comparative Syntax:
I have been working on the comparative syntax of Japanese and English and received my Ph.D. on this topic under the supervision of Professor Naoki Fukui (Sophia University) in 2022. Specifically, I argue that there is no Φ-feature agreement in Japanese and conducted several case studies on expressions and constructions that exist in Japanese, but not in other languages such as English. The revised version of my dissertation has been published as Kobayashi 2022.
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2022. Functional Parametrization Hypothesis in the Minimalist Program: Case Studies from the Perspective of Comparative Syntax of Japanese and English. Tokyo: Kaitakusha. (ISBN: 9784758923781) [website]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2018. Eliminating the discourse-based parameter. JELS 35, 252-258. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2018. Feature inheritance and the syntax of lexical VV compounds. In Kate Bellamy, Anastasiia Ionova and George Saad (eds.), Proceedings of the ConSOLE XXV, 250-267. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2017. On some symmetric constituents in Japanese. In Yim Changguk (ed.), Proceedings of the 19th Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar, 451-463. Korean Generative Grammar Circle. [pdf]
2. Syntactic Operations (Merge/MERGE, Search, Agree, Transfer, etc.):
I am also interested in the nature of syntactic operations, such as Merge/MERGE, Search, Agree, and Transfer. In particular, I have been studying how Pair-MERGE, Transfer, and Labeling influence cross-linguistic differences.
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro and Tomoya Tanabe. to appear. Arguments against reanalyses of Pair-MERGE as Set-MERGE. In xx (eds.), Proceedings of the 41st West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, xx-xx. Sommerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2021. Labeling the unlabelable in the CP domain. In Sho Akamine (ed.), Proceedings of the 32nd Western Conference on Linguistics Volume 26 (WECOL 2020), 1-10. Fresno: California State University. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2018. Parametrizing the timing of Transfer in Japanese and English and its consequences. In Céleste Guillemot, Tomoyuki Yoshida and Seunghun J. Lee (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th Edition of the Workshop of Altaic Formal Linguistics, 371-379. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2016. "Project Both" within a nominal adjective. In Tae Sik Kim and Seungwan Ha (eds.), Proceedings of the 18th Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar, 246-160. Korean Generative Grammar Circle. [pdf]
3. Head Movement (Verb-raising) in Japanese:
The debate over whether Japanese has syntactic verb-raising has not been settled. Even if such verb-raising in Japanese exists, it would be string-vacuous and not show overt evidence. Under these circumstances, I have been conducting my research, claiming that there is no conclusive evidence for the existence of syntactic verb-raising in Japanese. My recent paper, published in The Linguistic Review, critically examines the verb-raising analysis of Japanese Non-constituent Coordination.
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2023. On the verb-raising analysis of non-constituent coordination in Japanese. The Linguistic Review 40(3), 405-418. [website]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2023. Verbs stay in-situ in Japanese: A case study of VP-fronting. In Sara Williamson, Adeola Aminat Babayode-Lawal, Laurens Bosman, Nicole Chan, Sylvia Cho, Ivan Fong and Kaye Holubowsky (eds.), Proceedings of Japanese/Korean Linguistics 30, 463-470. Stanford: CSLI Publications. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2016. Japanese V-te V compounds as post-syntactic compounds. Studies in Generative Grammar 26(2), 223-238. [website]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2016. Against V-to-T-to-C movement in Japanese and Korean non-constituent coordination. In Patrick Farrell (ed.), Proceedings of the 90th Annual Meeting of the LSA, 8:1-14. The Linguistic Society of America. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2015. Interface conditions on head movement: Case studies on NEG-raising and coordination in Japanese. In Tae Sik Kim and Seungwan Ha (eds.), Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Generative Grammar, 255-269. Korean Generative Grammar Circle. [pdf]
4. Ellipsis Phenomena in Japanese:
I propose, in collaboration with Tomoya Tanabe (Hokkaido University), an analysis of ellipsis that does not assume syntactic verb-raising in Japanese. We focus on null adjuncts, which are usually considered to be independently unelidable. The adjunct-inclusive interpretations have been used as evidence for Head-stranding Ellipsis. In our paper accepted for publication in Syntax, we explore the possibility that adjuncts can be elided independently. We propose syntactic and pragmatic analyses of ellipsis that do not assume syntactic verb-raising.
Tanabe, Tomoya and Ryoichiro Kobayashi. 2024. Arguments against head-stranding ellipsis in Japanese: A reply to Funakoshi (2016). Syntax, 1-23. [website] [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro, Tomoya Tanabe and Yosuke Sato. 2023. Focusing on the diagnostic validity of the adjunct test in Japanese: Where prosody meets information structure. In Tae Sik Kim (ed.), Proceedings of Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar 25, 60-73. Korea Generative Grammar Circle. [pdf]
Tanabe, Tomoya and Ryoichiro Kobayashi. 2023. Remarks on verb echo answers and head movement in Japanese. In Lucas Fagen, Sam Gray, Quain, Stephanie Reyes and Irene Tang (eds.), Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistic Society Vol.58, 467-478. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. [pdf]
Tanabe, Tomoya and Ryoichiro Kobayashi. to appear. Null adjuncts are not a hallmark of head-stranding ellipsis in Japanese. In xx (eds.), Proceedings of the 16th Edition of the Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics, xx-xx. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2020. A case against the verb-stranding VP-ellipsis analysis in Japanese. In Tae Sik Kim and Sae-Youn Cho (eds.), Proceedings of Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar 22, 298-304. Korea Generative Grammar Circle. [pdf]
5. Coordination:
I have been researching the coordinate structure, focusing on Japanese and English. In particular, I am interested in whether coordination projects ConjP, or &P, even in Japanese, a strictly head-final language. My research focuses specifically on repetitive/correlative coordinators, such as either and both in English and -to and -ka in Japanese, repeated at the right end/edge of coordination.
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro and Taihei Asada. 2016. Negative concord items in coordinate structure. In Kate Bellamy, Anastasiia Ionova and George Saad (eds.), Proceedings of the ConSOLE XXIV, 254-262. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2016. The repetitive coordinator-ka in and the syntax of alternative questions in Japanese. JELS 33, 242-248. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2016. The repetitive coordinator-ka in Japanese and either in English as scope indicators in disjunction. In Sunghye Cho (ed.), Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, 22(1), 187-196. Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2015. The repetitive coordinator-to in Japanese as a postposition. In Tatsuhiro Matsuda, Chuan Lian Hua and Yuriko Yokoe (eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Sophia University Linguistics Society, 1-19. Sophia University Linguistics Society. [pdf]
6. Path/Range (from-to and kara-made) Constructions:
I pointed out that from-to constructions behave in parallel with coordination cross-linguistically and conducted a syntactic study focusing on kara-made in Japanese and from-to in English. However, at this point, I am not sure if the coordination analysis of from-to constructions is the best way to go. Therefore, I am currently considering a new analysis of from-to constructions in my ongoing research.
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2019. Notes on coordination, copulas, and from-to constructions. In Sae-Youn Cho (ed.), Proceedings of GLOW in Asia XII, 145-159. Korean Generative Grammar Circle. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2019. The syntax of path/range PP constructions in Japanese. In Shin Fukuda, Mary Shin Kim and Mee-Jeong Park (eds.), Online Proceedings of Japanese/Korean Linguistics 25, 1-13. Stanford: CSLI Publications. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2018. On two types of from-to PPs in English and the parallelism in syntax. JELS 35, 76-82. [pdf]
7. Syntax of Passives:
There is a long debate as to whether the NP movement is involved in the derivation of Japanese passive sentences. In my study, I attempted to treat so-called direct passives and indirect passives in Japanese in a unified manner by assuming movement into θ-positions.
8. Intervention Effects:
In contrast to pragmatic analyses, I argue that polarity sensitivity is the key factor that causes syntactic LF-intervention effects. I suggest that the LF-intervention effects in Japanese may also be reduced to the Focus Intervention Effects (Beck 2006).
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2017. Is it syntactic or pragmatic? A hybrid analysis for LF-intervention effects. Language and Linguistics 18(2), 228-253. [website]
9. Semantics of Plurality (-toka, -tari, and -ya in Japanese):
In collaboration with Ryan Walter Smith (University of Manchester), I worked on the semantics of -toka, -tari, and -ya in Japanese. This research has been further developed in Ryan's doctoral dissertation and his other publications.
Smith, Ryan Walter and Ryoichiro Kobayashi. 2018. Alternating conj/disjunctions: The case of Japanese -toka & -tari. In Uli Sauerland and Stephanie Solt (eds.), Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22(2) (ZAS Papers in Linguistics 61), 293-307. Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics, Berlin. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro and Ryan Walter Smith. 2018. Conjunctive or disjunctive? On the syntax/semantics of -toka and -tari in Japanese. In Kate Bellamy, Anastasiia Ionova and George Saad (eds.), Proceedings of the ConSOLE XXV, 91-108. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. [pdf]
Smith, Ryan Walter and Ryoichiro Kobayashi. 2017. Focusing on coordination: The case of Japanese -toka and -tari. In Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine (ed.), Proceedings of the GLOW in Asia XI, Vol. 2, 205-215. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro and Ryan Walter Smith. 2017. A case of a semantic restriction on coordination. In Yim Changguk (ed.), Proceedings of the 19th Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar, 451-463. Korean Generative Grammar Circle. [pdf]
10. Syntax-Morphology Interface:
In connection with the study of head movement and verb-raising in Japanese, I am exploring a morphological analysis of how to guarantee the agglutinative nature of the Japanese language. I believe that it will ultimately lead to simpler syntax by eliminating head movement from narrow syntactic operations.
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro and Yusuke Yoda. 2017. NEG in VP-coordination and suspended affixation in Japanese. In Leyla Zidani-Eroğlu, Matthew Ciscel and Elena Koulidobrova (eds.), Proceedings of the 12th Edition of the Workshop of Altaic Formal Linguistics, 177-187. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [pdf]
Yoda, Yusuke and Ryoichiro Kobayashi. 2017. I didn't drink and drove a Car: NEG expresses eccentric Triplets. In Kajsa Djärv and Amy Goodwin Davies (eds.), Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 23(1), 311-318. Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2016. Eliminating PF-reanalysis. English Linguistics 33(1), 100-107. [website]
11. Syntax-Prosody Interface:
I am also interested in the prosodical licensing conditions of XP-shika in Japanese, and have conducted some experiments using Praat. I have further developed this research on the Syntax-Prosody Interface with a comparative study of Japanese XP-shika and Korean XP-pakkey.
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2017. NCIs at the syntax-prosody interface and the position of NEG in Japanese/Korean coordination. In Leyla Zidani-Eroğlu, Matthew Ciscel and Elena Koulidobrova (eds.), Proceedings of the 12th Edition of the Workshop of Altaic Formal Linguistics, 189-196. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [pdf]
Kobayashi, Ryoichiro. 2016. On the position of NEG in coordination: NCIs in Japanese at the syntax-prosody interface. In Ayaka Sugawara, Shintaro Hayashi and Satoshi Ito (eds.), Proceedings of the Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics 8, 63-74. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [pdf]