On the Type-wise Productivity of Lexical V-V Compounds in Japanese: A Th ematic Proto-role Approach

Th e type-wise productivity of lexical V-V compounds in Japanese is investigated systematically from the perspective of thematic proto-roles. It is shown that the degrees of productivity are sensitive not only to the quantitative advantage of transitive verbs but also to the complexities encountered in the pro- cess of argument matching between two verbs to be combined via compound- ing. Th e correlation between such complexities and productivity is captured by an optimality-oriented approach that takes advantage of a set of markedness constraints. Th e constraints are not simply capable of selecting the most optimal candidate of a single comparison, but useful for comparing diff erent winning candidates from separate and mutually independent comparisons as well. Th e current approach distinguishes itself from those based on the traditional concept of transitivity of verbs, which merely describe—but are not capable of predict- ing—the observed patterns of productivity.*