An emperical research on the emergence of the category of immediate future expressions in Modern English

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K16858
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Kumamoto Gakuen University
• Principal Investigator: Watanabe Takuto 熊本学園大学, 外国語学部, 講師 (00734477)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 英語史 / 未来表現 / 近代英語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study dealt with issues related to the emergence of the category of immediate future expressions in Modern English. In Early Modern English, there were various expressions to denote immediate future, some of which survived into today's English, but others died out. This study considered differences between those survived and those did not and suggested the possibility that the stability in form and meaning determined the fate of each immediate future expression in Early Modern English. It also dealt with the variant forms of "on the point of doing" and suggested that the current form ending with "of doing" was established due to the development of complex prepositions.

Free Research Field

英語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、近代英語期における未来表現の変遷を、近接未来表現という新たなカテゴリーの創発という観点から捉える点に意義がある。従来、英語未来表現の発達に関する研究は、will/shall の交替とその規範文法との関係や、be going to のような個々の表現の発達など、局所的側面に注目したものが多く、全体的視点から捉える試みはほとんどなされてこなかった。しかし、本研究の考え方により、過去数百年間に生じた未来表現の発達や変遷を、散発的・個別的な現象としてではなく、体系的変化として捉え直すことができる。