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2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

A Cognitive Neuroscientik Study of the Domain-Specificity of Innate Language Faculty

Research Project

Project/Area Number 17320062
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field Linguistics
Research InstitutionMie University

Principal Investigator

AYANO Seiki  Mie University, Faculty of Humnities and Social Sciences, Professor (00222703)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) SUGISAKI Koji  Mie University, Faculty of Humnities and Social Sciences, Asscoiate Professor (60362331)
HATTORI Noriko  Mie University, Faculty of Humnities and Social Sciences, Professor (00198764)
OKAZAKI Yuji  Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, 東京都精神医学総合研究所, Visiting Researcher (40010318)
YAMAMOTO Tetsuro  Mie University, Graduate School of Medicine, Professor (00127002)
YUKIKA Nishimura  Mie University, Hospital, Assistant Professor (60456738)
Project Period (FY) 2005 – 2007
Keywordslinguistics / innate language faculty / domain specificity / language acquisition / brain science / NIRS
Research Abstract

This research project was of an interdisciplinary nature, viz linguistics and brain science(brain imaging), which evaluates the following two hypotheses : (i) the innate language faculty, which plays a crucial role in language acquisition, contains domain-specific properties, and(ii) this domain-specific language faculty has a modular nature and consists of sub-domains with distinctive functions.
In 2005-2007, we investigated the domain specificity of our innate language faculty, with adult subjects. We designed experiments, identified the areas of the brain to be examined, and conducted our experiments. More specifically, we first addressed the question of whether the fMRI findings reported in the literature concerning domain-specificity of a given syntactic operation in Japanese can be replicated with experiments using NIRS. Second, two competing hypotheses concerning the word-order variation in Japanese were evaluated, to determine whether the syntactic operation in question is involved in this phenomenon. Our research findings were presented at international conferences and published in a refereed international journal.
In addition, in 2007, we conducted experiments with children, based on our research findings with adult subjects. Despite a number of preliminary experiments, we were not able to establish an effective experimental design, hence no significant results. However, conducting the preliminary experiments itself was highly suggestive of how the research design could be improved and what our future research plans should be like.

  • Research Products

    (21 results)

All 2008 2007 2006 Other

All Journal Article (11 results) (of which Peer Reviewed: 7 results) Presentation (10 results)

  • [Journal Article] An fNIRS study on the basic word order in Japanese2008

    • Author(s)
      Nishimra, Yukika, et. al.
    • Journal Title

      NeuroReport (印刷中)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] On the existence of subject scrambling: An fNIRS study2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji., et. al.
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the 7th Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics 8

      Pages: 103-120

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] A note on the default values of parameters2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji
    • Journal Title

      Biolinguistics 1

      Pages: 114-117

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] The configurationality parameter in the minimalist program: A view from child Japanese2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development 31

      Pages: 597-608

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] Talmy's lexical-semantic typology and three types of directional PPs in Japanese2007

    • Author(s)
      Ayano, Seiki
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the Thirty-First Berkeley Linguistics Society 31

      Pages: 25-36

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] Adjectival and verbal nouns in Japanese and multi-level nominalization2007

    • Author(s)
      Ayano, Seiki
    • Journal Title

      Acta Linguistica Hungarica 54

      Pages: 237-262

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] On the existence of subject scrambling : An fNIRS study2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji, Yukika, Nishimura, Noriko, Hattori, Yasushi, Inolcuchi, Yoshihiro, Nishimura, Mariko, Ogawa, Yuji, Okazaki, Waro, Taki, Shinichi, Unoh, Tetsuro, Yamamoto, Etsuko, Yoshida, Seiki, Ayano
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the Eighth Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics 8

      Pages: 103-120

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] The configurationality parameter in the minimalist program : A view from child Japanese2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development 31

      Pages: 597-608

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Topics in child Japanese2006

    • Author(s)
      Hattori, Noriko., et. al.
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the 7th Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics 7

      Pages: 103-119

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] Topics in child Japanese2006

    • Author(s)
      Hattori, Noriko, Seiki, Ayano, Dylan, Herrick, Koji, Sugisaki, David, Stringer
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the Seventh Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics 7

      Pages: 103-119

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] An fNIRS study on the basic word order in Japanese

    • Author(s)
      Nishimura, Yukika, Koji, Sugisaki, Noriko, Hattori, Yasushi, Inokuchi, Yoshihiro, Nishimura, Mariko, Ogawa, Motohiro, Okada, Yuji, Okazaki, Waro, Taki, Tetsuro, Yamamoto, Etsuko, Yoshida, Seiki, Ayano
    • Journal Title

      NeuroReport (in press)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Presentation] Structure dependence in child Japanese2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji
    • Organizer
      GLOW in Asia VI
    • Place of Presentation
      Chinese University of Hong Kong
    • Year and Date
      2007-12-27
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Presentation] Structure dependence in child Japanese2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji
    • Organizer
      GLOW in Asia VI
    • Place of Presentation
      Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • Year and Date
      2007-12-27
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Presentation] Flexible word order in Japanese and its effects on frontal activation2007

    • Author(s)
      Nishimura, Yukika, et. al.
    • Organizer
      Neuro 2007
    • Place of Presentation
      パシフィコ横浜
    • Year and Date
      2007-09-11
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Presentation] Flexible word order in Japanese and its effects on frontal activation : A NIRS study2007

    • Author(s)
      Nishimura, Yukika, Koji, Sugisaki, Noriko, Hattori, Yasushi, Inokuchi, Yoshihiro, Nishimura, Mariko, Ogawa, Waro, Taki, Tetsuro, Yamamoto, Etsuko, Yoshida
    • Organizer
      Neuro 2007
    • Place of Presentation
      Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama
    • Year and Date
      2007-09-11
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Presentation] Topics in child Japanese2007

    • Author(s)
      Hattori, Noriko, Seiki, Ayano, Dylan, Herrick, Koji, Sugisaki, David, Stringer
    • Organizer
      The Seventh Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics
    • Place of Presentation
      Keio University, Tokyo
    • Year and Date
      2007-03-17
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Presentation] On the existence of subject scrambling: An fNIRS study2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji, et. al.
    • Organizer
      The Eighth Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics
    • Place of Presentation
      慶應義塾大学
    • Year and Date
      2007-03-16
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Presentation] On the existence of subject scrambling in Japanese : An fNIRS study2007

    • Author(s)
      Sugisaki, Koji, Yukika, Nishimura, Noriko, Hattori, Yasushi, Inokuchi, Yoshihiro, Nishimura, Mariko, Ogawa, Yuji, Okazaki, Waro, Taki, Shinichi, Unoh, Tetsuro, Yamamoto, Etsuko, Yoshida, Seiki, Ayano
    • Organizer
      The Eighth Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics
    • Place of Presentation
      Keio University, Tokyo
    • Year and Date
      2007-03-16
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Presentation] Two subclasses of adjectives and verbs in Japanese2006

    • Author(s)
      Ayano, Seiki
    • Organizer
      The Twelfth International Morphology Meeting
    • Place of Presentation
      Hungary Academy of Sciences
    • Year and Date
      2006-05-27
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Presentation] Two subclasses of adjectives and verbs in Japanese2006

    • Author(s)
      Ayano, Seiki
    • Organizer
      The Twelfth International Morphology Meeting
    • Place of Presentation
      Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungary Academy of Sciences, Budapest
    • Year and Date
      2006-03-27
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Presentation] Topics in child Japanese2006

    • Author(s)
      Hattori, Noriko, et. al.
    • Organizer
      The Seventh Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics
    • Place of Presentation
      慶應義塾大学
    • Year and Date
      2006-03-17
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より

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Published: 2010-02-04  

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