Determination of the pitch patterns of negative and affirmative sentences realized as noun-adjective+zyanai(falling intonation), classified by the word-accent type of the preceding noun-adjectives

• Project/Area Number: 21520395
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
• Principal Investigator: MISONO Yasuko 東京農工大学, 国際センター, 教授 (00209777)
• Project Period (FY): 2009 – 2011
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2011)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000); Fiscal Year 2011: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2010: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2009: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
• Keywords: ジャナイ / 否定 / 文末詞 / 下降調 / ピッチパタン / 語アクセントの型 / 形容動詞 / 付属語アクセント / 2拍形容動詞 / アクセント型 / 語アクセント

Research Abstract

Two-mora noun-adjectives of different word accent types were chosen for the analysis. Negative sentences and affirmative sentences, both realized as noun-adjective+zyanai(falling intonation) were acoustically analyzed to find pitch pattern characteristic to each usage. Negative sentences can be prosodically analyzed as noun-adjective-zya+nai, whereas affirmative sentences are noun-adjective+zyanai. In the negative sentences made up of noun-adjective-zya+nai, both the preceding noun-adjective and the negative element nai keep their word accent. Whereas in the negative form of verbs nai loses its word accent, nai in the negative form of noun-adjective is prosodically more independent.
This finding gives prosodic basis for categorizing nai in the negative form of verbs as auxiliary on the one hand, and nai in the negative form of adjectives, noun-adjectives, and nouns as adjective on the other.

Research Products

• [Book] 日本語研究の12章 (2010)
  • Author(s): 上野善道監修
  • Publisher: 明治書院