A Syntactic and Semantic Study of English Prepositions in the Minimalist Program

• Project/Area Number: 19520430
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Dokkyo University
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI Hidekazu Dokkyo University, 外国語学部, 教授 (30004071)
• Project Period (FY): 2007 – 2009
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2009)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,990,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥690,000); Fiscal Year 2009: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000); Fiscal Year 2008: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2007: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
• Keywords: 文法 / 前置詞 / 前置詞句 / 共起制限 / プロト意味概念 / 比喩的拡張 / 特性構造(Qualia Structure) / 形式特性(formal qualia) / 目的特性(telic qualia) / 複合前置詞 / 範疇選択 / 意味選択 / 従位接続詞 / 一般意味役割 / マクロ主題役

Research Abstract

(1) Prepositions can be found to take not only NPs but also APs, AdvPs, PPs and CPs ; so categorial selections must be specified for prepositions just like verbs.
(2) PPs can appear not only in sentence-initial position, VP-final position and sentence-final position but also in mid-position or auxiliary position, depending on their meanings.
(3) The semantic interpretation of PPs can be suggested to be made in the following way : (i) A small number of Proto-meanings can be assumed for prepositions ; (ii) The semantic properties of nouns can be specified in terms of Qualia structure, especially by Constitutive and Telic Qualia.