A Comparative Study of Causative Alternation Using Modifiers

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K21380
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: English linguistics; Linguistics
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University (2017-2019); Teikyo University (2016)
• Principal Investigator: Yasuhara Masaki 茨城大学, 教育学部, 講師 (10738834)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 自他交替 / 道具句 / 原因句 / 修飾要素 / 反使役自動詞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, I proposed that anticausatives in English and Japanese are different with respect to whether they include a causing event or not. In English, transitive verbs that denote externally caused events do not have anticausative counterparts because English does not permit anticausative structures with a causing event. In Japanese, on the other hand, transitive verbs denoting an externally caused event can often alternate with corresponding anticausatives because Japanese allows anticausative structures with a causing event. This syntactic difference between English and Japanese also applies to anticausatives that share the same meaning in both languages. This research proved this comparative difference by investigating anticausatives from the perspective of co-occurring modifiers.

Free Research Field

言語学、英語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

英語の動詞plantは反使役自動詞用法を持たないのに対して、日本語の動詞「植える」は反使役自動詞用法を持つという、日英語間の明確な差異が存在する一方、英語の動詞openと日本語の動詞「開ける」はどちらも反使役自動詞用法が可能である。本研究の意義は、日英語間で違いが見られる動詞だけではなく、一見、日英語間に違いが無いように思われる動詞に関しても、修飾要素の観点から違いを明らかにした点と、修飾要素が動詞の語彙的・統語的性質の分析において有効であることを支持した点にある。