Innovative Deviations in the System of Grammar: Interface of Language Use and Language Change

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02590
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Yamagata University
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Toru 山形大学, 人文社会科学部, 教授 (70216414)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 創造的逸脱 / 文法 / 構文 / 意味解釈

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Innovative deviation in language arises through the interaction of grammar and language use in actual contexts. This study attempts to explicate how various linguistic factors can contribute to innovation of creative linguistic expressions through examination of lexical and grammatical licensing conditions at the interface of syntax, semantics and language use. Two distinct constructional objects, (1) the spurious resultative construction and (2) the extended use of some activity verbs with adjectival complements, are mainly examined. It is shown that the former construction is specifically employed to describe “transformation events” with two grammatical peculiarities, namely, (a) mismatch in predication, and (b) adverbial modification. In the latter, it is shown that the extended use of the complement pattern can be given its own ecological niche in the complex of several related constructions and expressions as “a fashion of speaking” in English.

Free Research Field

英語学