This article shows, on the basis of indeterminate pronoun binding, that ten
se-related elements are checked in the checking domain of T and that other
elements are checked in the checking domain of the topmost light verb v. Th
e data pertaining to indeterminate pronoun binding, coupled with the data o
n focus particles, reveal that in Japanese, checking configurations are est
ablished in LF. LF movement employed for Case checking is argued to involve
the raising of a phrasal category, on the basis that it displays propertie
s different from those of nonphrasal movement in LF The newly attested data
from Japanese lead to the conclusion that constituents can be reordered af
ter "narrow" syntax and that strict locality is required for checking to ta
ke place, contrary to Chomsky's (2000, 2001) proposal.