This article demonstrates that Japanese minimizers, which are originally used as Negative Polarity Items in a negative context, can sometimes behave as focus markers when used postnominally. I will review a previous syntactic analysis of English minimizers, and propose a revised syntactic analysis of Japanese minimizers, based on newly discovered synchronic and diachronic facts. I argue that the usage of Japanese minimizers as focus markers was developed through grammaticalization as Upward Reanalysis along the nominal spine.

中文翻译：

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从最小化到焦点标记的语法化作为沿着标称脊柱向上重新分析*

本文演示了日本最小化器最初在负面环境中用作负极性项目，但在名义上使用时有时可以充当焦点标记。我将回顾之前对英语最小化词的句法分析，并根据新发现的共时和历时事实提出对日语最小化词的修订句法分析。我认为，日语最小化符号作为焦点标记的使用是通过语法化发展起来的，即沿着名义脊柱向上重新分析。