High earn
Classifiers / MeasureP
Prenominal vs postnominal = two packaging geometries. Counters inert for verbal θ-slots. Examples →
Surface arity · packaging
Valency packaging
A four-place sentence is still one geometry plus one packaging. Morphology is one of the places packaging freezes — with kanji as orthographic correlate, not as the packaging device.
Bridge unlocked
No doping claims
The slogan pair
Today’s morphology is yesterday’s syntax. Givón tradition (1971 ff.) — labeled lean
A four-place sentence is still one geometry plus one packaging. Grant / Tritransitive project — working hypothesis
Together: morphology is one of the places packaging freezes. That is a research stance, not a finished theorem.
SPECULATIVE · Givón lean. The historical typology slogan is REAL as classic claim. Applying it as mnemonic to opaque kanji compounds or Bridge tests is SPECULATIVE. Prefer synchronic classifiers and Argument Transfer for earn tests.
Three layers that can diverge
| Layer | Question |
|---|---|
| Lexical arity | How many arguments does the predicate’s entry license? |
| Surface arity | How many distinguished participant phrases appear in the clause? |
| Event geometry | What is the underlying participant structure? |
Morphology is often why they diverge in a given language.
Morphology as packaging technology
| Device | What it does | Example family |
|---|---|---|
| Affixal Appl / Caus | Increases or rearranges surface participants | Japanese causative -(s)ase |
| Case paradigms | Spell roles without adding event arguments | Acc / Dat / Instr MeasurePs |
| Light verbs | Borrow θ-roles from a noun / VN | VN + suru (G&M 1988) |
| Classifiers / MeasureP | Package amount + unit inside the nominal spine | Num+Cl (Oho 2019; Watanabe 2006) |
| Compound / stem fusion | Freeze older composition into opaque lexemes | Opaque two-kanji compounds |
Kanji’s job in this list: orthographic correlate of stems, VNs, counters, compounds — not the syntactic device.
Three diagnostics — earn status
High earn
VN + light suru
Argument Transfer redistributes θ-roles. Surface arity ≠ piece arities. Examples →
Low earn / fossil
Opaque compounds
Scalar bleaching (勉強, 挨拶). Illustrative of fossil packaging only — not Bridge tests. Examples →
Earn / collapse criteria
Earns keep if
- Packaging cites classifiers and/or Argument Transfer with primary sources.
- Kanji appear as orthographic correlates.
- Fossil/opaque compounds stay labeled and non-load-bearing.
- Surface arity ≠ geometry remains the organizing slogan.
Collapses if
- Graphs treated as syntactic heads or ideographic meaning-machines.
- On/kun counted as linguistic arity.
- A kanji↔doping analogy cited as prior joint literature.
- Opaque compounds equated with over-doping without earn tests.
Bridge unlocked. This desk does not revise Bridge A (doping windows ↔ saturation). No kanji↔doping field. Packaging > orthography for valency arguments.
SPECULATIVE · out of scope. Materials / doping parallels; kanji graphs as the packaging geometry itself; counting dual readings as arity. Flag and do not load-bear.