Reconsiderations of economy conditions in language

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00520
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Takahashi Daiko 東北大学, 国際文化研究科, 教授 (00272021)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 削除 / 省略 / スルーシング / 動詞句削除 / 項削除 / 経済性条件 / 最大削除条件

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study considered economy conditions assumed in generative syntax, focusing on what has been called MaxElide in the literature. It examined whether the effects of the condition can be observed cross-linguistically and whether its effects can be deduced from more general assumptions. By examining deletion phenomena in Mandarin Chinese closely, this study found that when sluicing and argument ellipsis are applicable to the same structure, the latter is blocked, and that when verb phrase ellipsis and argument ellipsis are applicable to the same structure, the latter is precluded. These findings indicate that the effects of MaxElide are observable in Mandarin Chinese, which is different in several important ways from English, on the basis of which most previous studies were conducted, lending credence to the cross-linguistic presence of MaxElide.

Free Research Field

言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

従来、最大削除条件に関する研究は主として英語のデータをもとに行われてきた。本研究は、英語とは異なる文法的特徴を持つ中国語を考察対象にして、同条件の普遍性を確認し、同時に削除現象の研究に中国語が有用であることを示した。また、同条件の研究は従来、疑問節縮約と動詞句削除の組み合わせを考察することで行われてきたが、本研究はこれに項削除を加え、新しい知見を提供した。