An Advanced Study of Tense and Related Areas in Japanese, Englsih, and Other West-European Languages

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02804
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Wada Naoaki 筑波大学, 人文社会系, 教授 (40282264)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 渡邊 淳也 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 教授 (20349210)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 時制 / アスペクト / モダリティ / 心的態度 / （間接）発話行為 / 比較研究

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigated tense, aspect, and modality phenomena (TAM phenomena) in not only Japanese and English but also other West-European languages such as German, Dutch, and French from the theoretical perspective of the “comprehensive model of tense interpretation.” It was clarified that West-European languages, which have tense morphemes integrated with person, number, and mood, show TAM phenomena centering around the public self (i.e., the speaker as the subject of communicating), whereas Japanese, which has those not integrated with such deictic categories, shows TAM phenomena centering around the private self (i.e., the speaker as the subject of thinking or consciousness). It was also shown that the differences of TAM phenomena among languages centering around (oriented to) the public self are attributed to their differences in the degree of C-gravitation (i.e., gravitation toward the consciousness of the speaker).

Free Research Field

人文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本語と複数の西欧諸語（英独仏蘭西語）の時制・アスペクト・モダリティ・心的態度に関する現象について、包括的な時制解釈モデルに基づいた統一的観点からの比較・対照研究はほとんど行われておらず、加えて一般的な言語使用モデルと連携した形で、発話行為やダイクシス、主観性などの語用論的分野にまで分析範囲を広げて行われた研究はこれまで皆無であったため、新しい研究の方向に道筋をつけたという点が、本研究の学術的意義である。また、言語使用者の観点に立って解釈モデルを構築しているため、日本人がこれらの外国語の時制ならびにその関連現象を学ぶ際の助けになると期待できる点が、本研究の社会的意義である。