| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this project is to investigate into the relation between cycles in syntactic derivations and the application of semantic interpretation rules, with special reference to tense interpretation, scope interpretation of modals and quantifiers, pronominal binding, and adjunct interpretation. The main empirical findings of the research are the following three points.(1)A new tense interpretation system has been proposed. In this system, temporal representations are constructed derivationally, without stipulating any specific category as cycle. (2)The Sequence of Tense (SOT) adjustment rule has been proposed to account for SOT phenomena in English. It has been shown that syntactic information must be available when the SOT adjustment rule is applied. (3)Through the examination of pronominal binding phenomena involving modals in matrix clauses and pronominal subjects in conditional if-clauses, it has been shown that some type of if-clauses function as restrictors for abstract mod
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al operators contained within the head of the functional category that occurs outside CP and functions as 'performative clause'. It has been also shown that syntactic information must be available when pronouns are interpreted as bound by quantifiers.
On the basis of these empirical findings, a new model of semantics, that is, Distributed Semantics, is suggested Distributed Semantics consists of the three main ideas. (1)The parts of a syntactic object that contain only interpretable features as a result of AGREE/Feature Checking are 'semantic objects' as well as syntactic objects. At the end of derivation, the derived syntactic object as a whole is a semantic object as well. (2)Semantic interpretation rules are applied once relevant semantic objects are constructed, in accordance with the Earliness Principle. (3)It is not necessary to specify particular categories as cycles for semantic interpretation. This point favors the approach of Epstein and Seely (2002) over the phase-based approach of Chomsky. Less
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