Discourse functions of suspended clause constructions: A conversation analytic approach

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16744
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Yokomori Daisuke 九州大学, 言語文化研究院, 准教授 (90723990)
• Research Collaborator: Chen Li
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 中断節構文 / 会話分析 / 従属節 / 副詞節 / 引用節 / 名詞修飾節

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project investigated the interactional functions of Suspended Clause Constructions in spoken Japanese, which are subordinate clauses standing alone as complete utterances without their main clauses. Recordings of naturally-occurring conversation and their transcripts were accumulated to the database for this project, from which examples of Suspended Clause Constructions were collected. The examples with their interactional contexts were analyzed by applying the method of Conversation Analysis to the investigations of grammatical formats.

Free Research Field

相互行為言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

中断節構文は、書き言葉に基づく文法からすれば逸脱的な現象だが、日本語母語話者であれば誰しも日常的に使用（産出・理解）している表現形式である。したがって、中断節構文の体系的記述は、談話研究としての意義はもちろん、我々の文法知識の一端を明らかにするという意義もある。また、本研究を通じて整備された自然会話データベースと会話分析に基づく言語研究の手法は、話し言葉にみられる様々な言語現象の解明につながる道筋をつけるものである。