Toward a unified account of root phenomena: with focus on topicalization

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02488
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Kobe City University of Foreign Studies
• Principal Investigator: NASU Norio 神戸市外国語大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (00347519)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 主節現象 / 話題化 / 節構造 / カートグラフィー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The result of this study is as follows: (1) Bare topics exhibit the greatest degree of root-orientation, whereas contrastive topics exhibit the lowest degree of root-orientation. Among topic expressions categorized in between, thematic topics exhibit higher degree of root-orientation than scene-setting topics. (2)Subordinate clauses tolerating topicalization constitute phases, whereas those which resist it do not. (3) Thematic and scene-setting topics interact with operator movement, whereas contrastive topics do not. (4) A thematic topic is licensed via a probe-goal relation postulated in the minimalist theory in generative grammar. (5) An element with extremely strong root-orientation occurs in Speech Act Phrase, which is unique to a root clause.

Free Research Field

理論言語学、統語論