1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Contrastive Study of Middle Construction in French and Japanese
| Project/Area Number |
08610501
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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 |
仏語・仏文学
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| Research Institution | Osaka University |
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Principal Investigator |
HARUKI Yoshitaka Osaka University, Department of French, Associate Professor, 言語文化部, 助教授 (00144535)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1997
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| Keywords | Middle Construction / Passive / Spontaneity / Reflexive / Voice / Affected / Patient / Agent |
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| Research Abstract |
In this research, I tried to reconsider the whole reflexive constructions in Modern French in the hope that I would give them a coherent semantic characterisation, which has never been done successfully so far. Reflexive constructions are used in French to express greater involvement or participation of a referent of the subject in the process denoted by the reflexive verb, In the voice system, different from the transitive constructions in which a referent of the subject does something to the 'goal' referent, there is no such transitive flow to another referent from the referent of the subject in reflexive constructions. I do not claim either that there is a circular movement of an act from the subject back to itself. My claim is that the involvement of the subject in reflexive constructions is self-sufficient and that the subject does not eradiate its act from its sphere. The intransitive constructions are also different from the reflexive, because in the former constructions the involvement of the subject does not exist. Even if it does, it is not expressed linguistically.
Although many linguists claim that, in the reflexive constructions, a referent of the subject 'is affected'. I do not agree with them. The notion 'being affected' is too vague and not operable. This notion may be useful to explain semantic effects of the reflexive construction but not to explain its function.
I am still working on Japanese middle constructions with the special emphasis on the possibility of co-occurrence of the 'NI' (*) case expression as well as the tense in which Japanese 'JIHATSU'(construction with the meaning of spontaneity) can be used.
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