Introduction

A clause is a linguistic unit which consists, at a minimum, of a predicate and its argument(s). It is a unit smaller than a sentence, for a sentence can consist of more than one clause. In Japanese, a predicate is a verb (verbalpredicate), an i- or na-adjective plus copula (adjectivalpredicate), or a noun plus copula (nominalpredicate). Arguments typically, but not necessarily, consist of nounphrases (NPs) such as mado ga, heya ga, kore ga in (1).

Each predicate requires a number of arguments for conveying its essential meaning. Generally, adjectival and nominal predicates, as well as some verbal predicates, require only one argument. In Japanese, this mandatory argument is marked by the postpositional particle ga, as shown in (1), and the NP is said to be in the nominative case. The term grammaticalrelation is also used to identify the grammatical function of the given NP with respect to the predicate. In (1), all of the nominative NPs hold the grammatical relation of subject to their corresponding predicates.