Grammaticalization as space creation: why did an indefinite artilce emerged later than a definite article?
| Project/Area Number |
15K02614
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
English linguistics
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| Research Institution | Hosei University |
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Principal Investigator |
OSAWA Fuyo 法政大学, 文学部, 教授 (10194127)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,340,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2016: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
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| Keywords | 定冠詞 / 不定冠詞 / 古英語 / 中英語 / 文法化 / 属格 / 言語習得 / 通言語的 / 群属格 / 属格語尾 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The aim of this research is to examine why an indefinite article "a/an" appeared later than a definite artilce "the" in English. I have shown that the emergence of articles has been the result of grammaticalization. Traditionally, grammaticalization is defined as the process whereby lexical items come to serve grammatical functions. I have proved that grammaticalization involves the structural change in a given structure. Furthermore, I have proposed that grammaticalization progresses in two stages: primary grammaticalization and secondary one.
The primary grammaticalization creates a new functional space in a structure. Old English demonstratives "se/seo" contributed to creating a new functional space, i.e., DP. The definite article emerged like this.
The ancestor of an infeinite article numeral an ="one" was grammaticalized due to this functional space DP, which is an instance of secondary grammaticaluzation. This is the reason of the later emergence of an indefinite article.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(13 results)
