2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Theoretical and Empirical Study of the Notion of Phase in Generative Grammar
| Project/Area Number |
14510543
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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 | MEIJI UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
ISHII Toru Meiji University, School of Arts and Letters, Associate, 文学部, 助教授 (30193254)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
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| Keywords | Generative Grammar / Minimalist Program / Phase / Language Faculty / Computational Complexity / Wh-island Constraint / That-trace Effects / Subjacency Condition |
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| Research Abstract |
Within the framework of generative grammar, which explicates the structure and function of the language faculty in the mind/brain of human beings, there have been various attempts to derive the effects of the computational operations proposed in the previous framework from computationally efficient operations. This study focuses on the notion of phase, which is one of the core concepts to reduce the computational complexity within the minimalist program, the most recent framework of generative grammar, and pursues a conceptually and empirically plausible definition of the notion of phase. Specifically, this study investigates the wh-island and that-t effects. It is widely accepted in generative literature that the wh-island effects are subsumed under the Minimal Link Condition. Based on the hitherto unnoticed fact that specific wh-phrases are allowed to be extracted out of indirect questions in English, this study argues that the wh-island effects cannot be subsumed under the Minimal Link Condition, but we still need their traditional subjacency-type account based on the notion of phase. It also argues that the that-t effects can be accounted for by the notion of phase. It is also shown that the phase-theoretic analysis of the that-t effects also account for their crosslinguistic variations.
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Research Products
(12 results)
