A Study of Sentence Structures and Semantic and Discorse Interface: On Rhetorical Question and the Related WH-Constructions

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02607
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University
• Principal Investigator: INADA Toshiaki 長崎大学, 言語教育研究センター, 教授 (80108258)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 稲田 俊一郎 明治薬科大学, 薬学部, 講師 (10725386) ; 今西 典子 文京学院大学, 外国語研究科, 非常勤講師 (70111739) ; 西岡 宣明 九州大学, 人文科学研究院, 教授 (80198431)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 修辞疑問文 / インターフェイス / 多重WH疑問文

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To investigate the uniformity and variability of language, we examined the syntactic, semantic and discourse properties of Rhetorical Questions (RQ) and related WH-constuctions and clarified the following points. (1) There are significant differences between Japanese and English RQs, and the former allows more options of RQ and the related constructions. (2) The differences of Japanese RQ (JRQ) and English RQ (ERQ) can be reduced to the syntactic properties of the two language types: only the former type has the morph-syntactic marking and/or functional projections to meet the requirements of illocutinary forces including RQ and EQ (Echo-Question).(3) The differences of RQ interpretation in "multiple WH-questions" and "island effects" in JRQ and ERQ can be explained by the above properties and the interface conditions.(4) Cross-linguistic observations of RQs in other languages (Korean, Chinese, German, French, etc.) also indicates that the above approach is tenable.

Free Research Field

言語学