2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Gradience in resultative interpretation and event structures in the English Language
| Project/Area Number |
11610481
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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 |
英語・英米文学
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
YASUI Izumi Institute of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Tsukuba, Professor, 現代語・現代文化学系, 教授 (00110578)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2000
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| Keywords | iconicity / verb / enent / degree / meaning / result and process / implication / gradience |
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| Research Abstract |
Events are analysed as temporal notions consisting of an onset, a nucleus and a coda along the lines suggested by Freed 1979 and Voorst 1988. Crucial examples observed and clarified in terms of event structures and the rusultative perspectives are: to shoot NP in which a coda is included and focused, to kick at the door in which a nucleus is focused, two types of expressions in which a coda is not included, one is an expression which focuses 'without including an onset' (ex. to stop a person from doing), the other is an expression in which a coda is not included though a nucleus is, that is, an event is interrupted during a nucleus (ex. to stop a person doing). The gradience of implication of a coda can be observed in three levels, lexical levels, verb phrase levels, and sentence structure levels. The fact that metonymical extensions observed in gerundive and derived nominals tends not to be a from-nucleus-to-onset>type of extension but to be a from-nucleus-to-coda type of extension is pointed out and explicated from the cognitive and embodiment points of view. It is clear that the analysis of event structures in the preset paper will be the basis for the further study of iconicity: syntax is a reflection of semantics.
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