Main Clause Phenomena in Japanese and English Complement Clauses

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K13478
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Ryukoku University
• Principal Investigator: Yoshimoto Keisuke 龍谷大学, 政策学部, 准教授 (90724477)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 主文現象 / カートグラフィー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study I investigated why main clause phenomena, which standardly occur in main clauses, are allowed (or disallowed) to occur in a subset of embedded clauses. In the previous literature, there are two competing approaches to the unacceptability of embedded main clause phenomena. Those who advocate the truncation analysis argue that embedded main clause phenomena are so restrained due to the lack of the relevant projections in the clausal periphery. On the other hand, the advocates of the intervention analysis proposes that operator movement intervenes with main clause phenomena such as argument topicalization. I investigated the occurrences of the Japanese politeness marker, and suggested that its distribution is affected by multiple factors including clause sizes and operator movement. I also showed that operator movement is not necessarily contingent on 'factivity' in certain types of clauses.

Free Research Field

生成文法、統語論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

生成文法の主たる目標は、人間の子どもがどのように母語を獲得するのかを生得仮説に基づき解明することである。子どもが一様に短期間で母語を獲得することを考えると、生まれつき脳内に言語獲得装置が備わっており、それがまわりで話されている言葉に刺激されて、臨界期までに個別文法へと変遷すると考えられている。カートグラフィー研究はこれまで節の周縁部の精緻な句構造を明らかにしてきたが、子どもが母語獲得の過程でそのように複雑な句構造の定型を学ぶとは考え難い。本研究では、節の周縁部で起こる主文現象を考察しながら、句構造の定型がより普遍的な局所性の原理に還元可能か否かを、主文現象や補文のタイプごとに検証した。