ON THE NATURE OF THE DATIVE PARTICLE NI IN JAPANESE

Following Kuroda (1965), Miyagawa (1989) classifies post-NP particles in Japanese into two categories, postpositions and case markers. Postp ositions such as kara 'from' and de 'with' project their own maximal p rojections, whereas case markers such as the nominative ga and the acc usative o directly cliticize onto an NP, without projecting a maximal projection. Particle ni presents a serious challenge to this analysis because it shows characteristics of both case markers and postposition s (as well as some other categories). In this paper, we examine the be havior of ni in various contexts and show that there are four types of ni: the dative case marker, the postposition ni, the ni of ni inserti on, and a form of the copula. The last two categories being irrelevant to Kuroda's dichotomy, ni in fact neatly fits into Miyagawa's analysi s of this dichotomy. Thus, the problem is only apparent. We also discu ss issues concerning acquisition of ni. It is suggested that the dativ e case marker ni and the postposition ni can be discriminated by the ' 'affectedness'' of the referent of the NP they attach to.