Budget Amount *help |
¥2,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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Research Abstract |
The present study is a continuation of the previous research project, that is, "Toward the Compilation of Better English Diachronic Corpora-A Preliminary Study-" (Grant-in-Aid Scientific Research (C)(2) Project No. 10610470) and intends to develop a methodology for compiling diachronic corpora more useful for the historical study of English. The present study focuses on colloquial features of written English, and has investigated various types of texts, such as private letters, statutes, proceedings (trial), plays and handbooks. The items under investigation are 1) multiple negation, 2) adverbial forms (zero vs. -ly), and 3) degree adverbs. The similarities and differences among these text types are examined from a viewpoint of linguistic variation. The results have revealed that 'colloquial' texts tend to be innovative in linguistic forms. Parts of the results have already been presented at some conferences (English Literary Society of Japan, Japan Association for English Corpus Studies), and are included in the revised version of An Introduction to English Corpus Linguistics (Kenkyusha, in Japanese). One article has been published and two are now in press.
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