A Descriptive Study of the Interrelationships among Meanings and Functions of Compound Clauses in Contemporary Japanese

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02784
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese linguistics
• Research Institution: Gakushuin University
• Principal Investigator: Maeda Naoko 学習院大学, 文学部, 教授 (30251490)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 複文 / 従属節 / 副詞節 / 条件節 / 継起節 / 授受表現 / 可能表現 / 敬語表現

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Until now, the study of compound clauses has mainly focused on their semantic classification and structural properties, and their relations with other grammatical categories or items have not been actively addressed, except for co-occurrence constraints and preferences of semantic or grammatical items like voice (e.g. passive and causative) in main clauses. In this study, however, we focused on the relationship between some grammatical categories appearing in not only main clauses but also subordinate clauses, and analyzed on data collected from corpora. The items we addressed are Japanese Giving and Receiving expressions, Potential Expressions, and Honorific Expressions, which are more distinctive than those in other languages. In this study, we described grammatical, semantic, and functional features of the meaning and classification of subordinate clauses, the relation between Conditionals and Potential, Sequential and Giving/Receiving, Giving/Receiving and Honorific Expressions.

Free Research Field

日本語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は現代語の記述的な文法研究をさらに発展させるものである。本研究は、複文と文法カテゴリーの相互研究として、複文については条件節と継起節、文法カテゴリーについては、授受表現、可能表現、敬語表現を取り上げることとなった。本研究により、これらの複文・文法カテゴリー研究に新たな記述的成果を提示するとともに、文法項目の相互関係を研究することの重要性が示された。また現代語の記述的研究は言語学のみならず、日本語教育への大きな貢献となる。本研究も一部のデータとして非母語話者の産出した日本語を参照し、研究を進めた。本研究の成果が今後、教材や教授資料などとして教育現場で実用的に活用されていくことが期待される。