Semantics of Attendant Circumstance : A Cognitive Study on Circumstantial Constructions and its relation to Subjectivity
| Project/Area Number |
19520423
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
English linguistics
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| Research Institution | Osaka University |
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Principal Investigator |
HAYASE Naoko Osaka University, 大学院・言語文化研究科, 准教授 (00263179)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2007 – 2009
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2009)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000)
Fiscal Year 2009: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2008: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
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| Keywords | 懸垂分詞 / 主体化 / 分詞構文 / コーパス / Usage-Based / 付帯状況 / 主体性 / 事態認知 / 懸垂分詞構文 / 間主観性 / 視点 / プロトタイプ / 事態把握 |
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| Research Abstract |
Dangling participles are considered incorrect usage in written Standard English. Nonetheless, dangling participles enjoy widespread usage, particularly in spoken English. This study argues that the use of dangling participles is semantically and cognitively motivated. In adopting a usage-based view and analyzing attested data from the British National Corpus, this study shows that constructions with a dangling participle describe a coherent "cognizance scenario" as their constructional meaning. The dangling participial construction evokes a conceptualizer who conceives the situation described in the main clause. Thanks to its constructional semantics, the dangling participle is especially common in text genres which focus on the interaction with the hearer.
The dangling participial construction is closely related to the Ground, i.e. to the speaker and the hearer and the time of speech. Its constructional meaning is therefore highly subjective or, in including the hearer, intersubjective. In spite of the notorious "inconsistency of the controller subject", the construction as a whole is fully motivated as an instance of subjective construal.
Another theoretical implication of the present study is the importance of a subjective construal at speech time. The dangling participial construction is ideally suited to express the speaker's subjective view of a state of affairs in an ongoing discourse. We do not seem to talk much about events or actions objectively, but rather about "how things are from our perspective." This communicative factor has motivated the "notorious" dangling participles and their entrenched use in conversation in spite of efforts of generations of prescriptive grammarians and teacher to dispel its use.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(8 results)
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[Journal Article]2009
Author(s)
坪本篤朗・早瀬尚子・和田尚明(編)
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Journal Title
『「内」と「外」の言語学』(早瀬尚子「懸垂分詞構文を動機づける「内」の視点」)(開拓社)
Pages: 55-97
Related Report
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