A Cognitive-Typology Approach to the Common Conceptual Ground between Demonstratives and Nominalization

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02479
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Tamura Yukishige 大阪大学, 言語文化研究科(言語文化専攻), 准教授 (30397517)
• Research Collaborator: Kemmer Suzanne Rice University, Assoc. Professor ; Shibatani Masayoshi Rice University, Professor
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 指示詞 / 名詞化 / ユピック・エスキモー語 / 認知言語学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research attempts to clarify typological characterizations on demonstratives and nominalziation though describing Yup'ik Eskimo grammar. While English shows a dichotomous distinction in terms of demonstratives such as this vs. that, Yup'ik employs 30 demonstratives for that purpose; if one wants to use Yup'ik demonstratives appropriately, he/she has to know how the space is cognitively organized with 30 demonstratives. In other words, the analysis of Yup'ik Eskimo demonstratives provides us with an opportunity to learn about our potentiality on our spatial references, which we could not obtain through the use of the demonstratives observed in the dichotomous system most commonly employed. With this idea in mind, I wrote four papers and three international conference presentations including those at Association of Linguistic Typology.

Free Research Field

認知類型論