Projections of Aspect in Japanese*

Japanese aspectual verbs have previously been analyzed as control and raising verbs, with their different syntactic behaviors derived from the control/raising distinction. This paper argues against the control/raising analysis of Japanese aspectual verbs, showing that the standard diagnostics do not support the presumed control/raising distinction among Japanese aspectual verbs. As an alternative, Japanese aspectual verbs are analyzed as heading their own projections in two different positions, below and above vP. Under the proposed analysis, the apparent control/raising interpretations of Japanese aspectual verbs and their different syntactic behaviors derive from two positions of aspectual verbs with respect to the positions of the neighboring elements.