2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study on the Empty Categories in Conceptual Structure
| Project/Area Number |
15520257
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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 |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
INOUE Kazuko Hiroshima University, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Professor, 総合科学部, 教授 (00144890)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | Conceptual Structure / Empty Categories / Obligatory Control / Arbitrary Control / PRO / English Sound Emission Verbs / TO-Infinitive Object Complement Constructions / Middle Construction |
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| Research Abstract |
It is proposed in Inoue (2001a, b) that there are two kinds of empty categories in conceptual structure : (i)α, β, γ... and (ii)φ. The former is like PRO_<obl> in that it obligatorily requires an antecedent, while the latter is like PRO_<arb> in that it requires no specific reference. The purpose of this research project is twofold. One is to argue for the presence of these categories in terms of the analyses of English sound emission verbs, verbs force and promise with to-infinitive complements and middle verb construction. The other is to explore the relationship between these categories and the syntactic ones.
The results obtained through this research project are the following :
1. Regarding sound emission verbs, these action verbs can be represented as causal events in terms of the analysis based on these empty categories, thereby making it possible to account for the occurrence of these verbs with optional Source/Goal expressions, the relationships of these verbs to their corresponding cognate object and give a V constructions, etc.
2. The subject and object control phenomena of the to-infinitive complements, hitherto investigated on the syntactic level, can appropriately be dealt with in terms of the analysis employing empty category (i).
3. The analysis of the middle construction in terms of empty category (ii) can not only account for the various properties of the construction including its genericity, stativity and affectedness condition but also related constructions such as "pseudo-middles."
4. Regarding the relationship of these two categories to the syntactic ones, these investigations lead to the following assumption that obligatory and optional control phenomena on the syntactic level constitute subsets of the phenomena involving categories (i) and (ii), respectively on the semantic level.
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