Japanese syntactic nominalization and VP-internal syntax

In this article, I argue that Japanese syntactic nominalization, formed with the nominalizer kata ‘way’, has a structure in which kata takes vP as its complement. It is claimed that overt head movement of all verbal heads below kata derives a complex nominal head. I propose that the nominalizing suffix—unlike tense—does not have an EPP feature, so that the arguments of syntactic nominals remain in their Merge positions without A-movement. This property of syntactic nominalization allows us to discern how and where arguments are merged and moved, and provides evidence for a split VP structure.