A Diachronic and Synchronic Study of Present Participles in English

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H07398
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Akita National College of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Katsuya Sugiura 秋田工業高等専門学校, 創造システム工学科人文科学系, 講師 (40781498)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 現在分詞 / 縮約関係節 / 主要部名詞繰り上げ分析 / 名詞前位修飾構造 / with構文

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the study of noun phrases postmodified by present participles, I adopted a head raising analysis of relative clauses. Based on the historical fact that reduced relative clauses appeared in Middle English(ME), I investigated the structure of the head noun and the determiner of the noun phrases postmodified by present participles in ME. I argued that the antecedent noun phrase of reduced relative clauses had the D structure in the fourteenth century, based on a construction in which a quantifier 'all' precedes the determiner 'the.' I showed that reduced relative clauses are explained properly under the head raising analysis.
In the study of noun phrases premodified by present participles, focusing on the function of the suffix '-ing,' I suggested the mechanism of the formation of present pariciples that behave as adjectives. In addition, I examined the historical development of noun phrases premodified by present participles that select experiencers as their object.

Free Research Field

英語学