2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Vowel devoicing in Japanese and its relation to prosody, morphology, and language acquisition
Project/Area Number |
15K16751
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
Research Field |
Linguistics
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Research Institution | Seikei University (2017-2019) Ritsumeikan University (2015-2016) |
Principal Investigator |
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Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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Keywords | 母音無声化 / 日本語 / 形態論 / インターフェース / 言語習得 / 音節 |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This study investigated aspects of vowel devoicing in Japanese, one of the characteristics in Japanese pronunciation that is often discussed. The study results added to the findings in the literature on phonology. For example, it was found that word-internal structure does not have an effect on the rate of vowel devoicing as phonological structure does. In child acquisition, it was found that the child's acquisition of vowel devoicing is related to their acquisition of the length and complexity of the utterance. In the study of palatalized consonants in Japanese, it was proposed from the results of experiments that they constitute consonant clusters rather than single consonants phonologically, which is an important proposal in Japanese phonology. The study also made it clear that there is further exciting research on vowel devoicing in Japanese in the future.
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Free Research Field |
言語学
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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
本研究で扱った母音の無声化は、通言語的な現象であるとともに日本語の音声特徴の一つである。通常声帯振動を伴って発音される母音の声帯振動がなくなる「無声化」が、どういう条件に左右されるのか。多くの先行研究に引き続き、本研究は、母音の無声化に関しての我々の知識を広げ、自然言語のしくみを理解する一助となったという学術的意義を持つ。また、本研究のインパクトは、言語理論のみならず実践にも及ぶと考えられ、成果は特に日本語教育における音声指導などの分野で応用されることが期待できる。
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