THE FEATURE SYSTEM OF NOUN PHRASES IN JAPANESE

The purpose of this article to bring into discussion the features of Noun Phrases in Japanese since definiteness is ultimately influenced by the morphosyntactic and morphologic phenomenology at a deep level. As we know, features are generally of three categories, privative, binary and attributive, with the latter containing more than one feature. Here we will resort only to emphasize a few charactreristics of the system. Features have gained increasing importance within theories of syntax and morphology in Japanese. This was obtained in two different manners. As theories try to capture ever more subtle distinctions, the features involved become more fine-grained and the noun phrases allow for more possible combinations.