Psycholinguistic studies of ellipsis and comparatives--aiming for theorizing about syntax and semantics interfaces

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K02712
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Fukuoka University
• Principal Investigator: ITO MASUYO 福岡大学, 人文学部, 教授 (10289514)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 比較 / 程度形容詞 / 程度意味論 / phrasal comparatives / maximality / scalar implicature / 選言 / disjunction

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study examines whether Japanese-speaking children are able to interpret predicative comparatives with the phrasal complement. The results show that until 6 years of age, children seem to have difficulty interpreting comparatives. I propose that their poor performance stems from the difficulty with the notion of Maximality, and therefore, with the notion of the maximum degree, essential to the (degree) semantic analysis of comparatives. We also raise the possibility that children younger than 6 take relative gradable adjectives as “extreme” or “categorical” adjectives. This study also examined whether Japanese-speaking children are able to calculate informational strength associated with the connectives ka and ya ‘or’. The children were found to assign non-adult-like interpretations to ka and ya.

Free Research Field

言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

統語論や意味論研究の進展によって、発達言語心理学研究も新たな報告がされている。しかし、比較文や、量や程度（語用論的情報量を含む）の比較に関わる先行研究については、英語を母語とする子供から得られた結果が主に報告されており、それ以外の言語を対象とした研究は限定的である。そのため、英語とは異なる言語類型的特徴をもつ日本語を対象とした研究から、発達言語心理学研究及び、理論研究への貢献を目指した。