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Japanese-speaking children's interpretation of null elements: An experimental study

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19K00599
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Review Section Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
Research InstitutionUniversity of Yamanashi (2021-2022)
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (2019-2020)

Principal Investigator

Isobe Miwa  山梨大学, 大学院総合研究部, 教授 (00449018)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 岡部 玲子  専修大学, 文学部, 教授 (60512358)
Project Period (FY) 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
Budget Amount *help
¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Keywords言語獲得 / 日本語 / 非顕在的要素 / Verb-echo answer / 生成文法 / 語彙的緊密性 / verb-echo answer
Outline of Research at the Start

日本語の特徴の1つとして、文の要素のうち、文脈から指し示す内容が明らかなものは音声的に表出されない点が挙げられる。このような非顕在的要素の出現条件の解明、および、その言語知識の獲得メカニズムの解明は、言語理論研究においても言語獲得研究においても重要な課題である。本研究は、日本語を母語とする幼児が、音形に表れない非顕在的要素をどのように理解するかを、実験の実施を通して調査し、そのデータに基づいて、言語獲得理論と生得的言語知識を司る言語機能のモデル構築に貢献することを目的とする。

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this research project was to investigate how Japanese-speaking children interpret null elements and, by doing so, to contribute to the theory of language and the theory of language acquisition. In particular, the present research focused on children’s verb-echo answers and lexical integrity.
Our experiments revealed that four- to five-year-old participants were able to assign the adult-like (adjunct-inclusive) interpretation to VEAs. The results provide supporting evidence that children’s VEAs are derived through string-vacuous verb raising and TP ellipsis.
We also experimentally examined children’s knowledge of lexical integrity, i.e., whether children treated an N-N compound as one “word,” thereby disallowing part of it from being elided and differentiating it from NPs. The results suggest the possibility that five-year-olds start to treat N-N sequences as “compound words,” distinguishing them from corresponding noun phrases.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

実験の実施により、4~5歳の日本語児がVEAを大人と同様に解釈できることを示した。これにより、VEAは「動詞がVからCへ語順変化を伴わずに主要部移動した後、主語を含むTPが省略されたことにより生じる」とする統語分析を支持し、語順の変化を伴わない主要部移動やTP省略が生得的言語知識の一部である可能性を高めた。複合名詞の一部の削除不可能性については、5歳頃までには、複合名詞が語であることを理解していることを示唆する結果を得た。これにより、「語の一部を削除することはできない」という普遍的制約がすでに備わっている可能性を高めた。

Report

(5 results)
  • 2022 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2021 Research-status Report
  • 2020 Research-status Report
  • 2019 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (5 results)

All 2023 2021 2019

All Journal Article (3 results) (of which Open Access: 1 results) Presentation (2 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 2 results)

  • [Journal Article] Adjunct-inclusive interpretations of verb-echo answers in child Japanese: A preliminary study2023

    • Author(s)
      Okabe, Reiko and Miwa Isobe
    • Journal Title

      専修人文論集

      Volume: 112 Pages: 75-88

    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Verb-Echo Answers in Child Japanese2021

    • Author(s)
      Miwa Isobe and Reiko Okabe
    • Journal Title

      言語研究の楽しさと楽しみ― 伊藤たかね先生退職記念論文集 ―

      Volume: - Pages: 398-408

    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
  • [Journal Article] Lexical Integrity and Acquisition of N-N Compounds in Japanese: A Preliminary Study2021

    • Author(s)
      Reiko Okabe and Miwa Isobe
    • Journal Title

      言語研究の楽しさと楽しみ― 伊藤たかね先生退職記念論文集 ―

      Volume: - Pages: 419-429

    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Adjunct-inclusive interpretations of verb-echo answers in child Japanese: A preliminary study2021

    • Author(s)
      Miwa Isobe and Reiko Okabe
    • Organizer
      The Third International Conference on Theoretical East Asian Psycholinguistics (ICTEAP-3)
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Verb-Echo Answers in Child Japanese2019

    • Author(s)
      Miwa Isobe and Reiko Okabe
    • Organizer
      The 14th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research

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Published: 2019-04-18   Modified: 2024-01-30  

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