Syntactic analysis of coordinate structures in Japanese Sign Language

• Project/Area Number: 16K02638
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Showa Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Yuko Asada 昭和女子大学, グローバルビジネス学部, 准教授 (10735476)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2018)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
• Keywords: 日本手話 / 統語論 / 生成文法 / 等位構造 / 日本語 / 同時性 / 統辞論 / List buoy / 対称性 / 言語学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The main aim of this research is to provide a comprehensive description of syntactic and semantic properties of coordinate structures in Japanese Sign Language (JSL). In the close and strong collaboration with native singers of JSL, this study made a wide range of important observations on coordination in JSL: the typology of conjunctive and disjunctive coordinators and their distributions; the possibility of simultaneous articulations of the conjuncts: the general use of coordination (Davidson 2013) and the cross-linguistic differences concerning general use coordinators; a previously undescribed type of List Buoy (Liddell 2003) in JSL; and the syntactic properties of coordination with respect to the Coordinate Structure Constraint (Ross 1967) and the “across-the-board”type extraction from a coordinate structure. These observations led to a number of significant implications for the theory of the grammaticalization from gestures and the syntactic/semantic nature of coordination.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究が明らかにした日本手話における等位構造の振る舞いに関する成果は、日本手話という個別言語の特性記述にとどまらず、手話言語・音声言語との比較を通して、言語の音韻部門での線状性や言語発達及び言語進化におけるジェスチャーからの文法化など、人間言語の普遍性の内実解明へ貢献することができた。手話言語の科学的・実証的研究の重要性を示すものとなった。更に本研究では、研究協力者である母語話者との緊密な連携を通して、母語話者の意識下にあった精密な等位接続詞の使い分けや文法特性を顕在化させ、それらを再度ろう者に伝えていくという双方向の交流が実現でき、発展途上にある手話言語研究の振興に寄与することができた。

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Simultaneity in Sign Language: Some observations from Japanese Sign Language (2017)
  • Author(s): Yuko Asada
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of GLOW in Asia XI, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics Volume: 85 Pages: 1-20
  • Open Access
• [Journal Article] 日本手話の列挙浮標 (2017)
  • Author(s): 浅田裕子
  • Journal Title: 日本言語学会第155回大会予稿集 Volume: 155 Pages: 264-267
  • Open Access
• [Journal Article] 等位接続の一般用法について (2016)
  • Author(s): 浅田裕子
  • Journal Title: 日本言語学会第153回大会予稿集 Volume: 153 Pages: 134-139
  • Open Access / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Presentation] A New Type of List Buoy in Japanese Sign Language: Emergence from Gesture (2018)
  • Author(s): Yuko Asada
  • Organizer: The 7th Meeting of Signed and Spoken Language Linguistics
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Another type of List Buoys in Japanese Sign Language: Emergence from gesture (2018)
  • Author(s): Yuko Asada
  • Organizer: The 26th Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Simultaneity in sign language ― Some observations from Japanese Sign Language (2017)
  • Author(s): Yuko Asada
  • Organizer: Glow in Asia 2017
  • Place of Presentation: シンガポール
  • Year and Date: 2017-02-20
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] 日本手話の列挙浮標 (2017)
  • Author(s): 浅田裕子
  • Organizer: 日本言語学会第155回大会
• [Presentation] 等位接続の一般用法について (2016)
  • Author(s): 浅田裕子
  • Organizer: 日本言語学会第153回大会
  • Place of Presentation: 福岡大学（福岡県 福岡市）
  • Year and Date: 2016-12-03
• [Presentation] Features shouldn’t be too much alike: Some evidence from Japanese Sign Language (2016)
  • Author(s): Yuko Asada
  • Organizer: The 5th Meeting of Signed and Spoken Language Linguistics
  • Place of Presentation: 大阪 国立民族学博物館（大阪府 吹田市）
  • Year and Date: 2016-09-25
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Funded Workshop] 東京手話言語学研究会 国際フォーラム (2016)
  • Place of Presentation: 昭和女子大学（東京都世田谷区）
• [Funded Workshop] 東京手話言語学研究会 第二回国際フォーラム (2016)
  • Place of Presentation: 慶応義塾大学（東京都港区）