A diachronic study of German verb derivational morphemes from a functional perspective

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00550
• 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: Musashi University
• Principal Investigator: Kuroda Susumu 武蔵大学, 人文学部, 教授 (00292491)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 言語史 / 通時言語学 / 形態論 / 語形成論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The changes in the function of the various elements (morphemes) used to coin　verbs from non-verbs (derivation) in German were analyzed on the basis of examples from German texts since the 9th century. Additionally, the study captured some of the patterns of change in the distribution of verbs with complex structures in the history of the German language and the environment in which these patterns are observed. Having established a method for capturing the regularities in the coining of new words in German, the results of the study may in the future lead to an understanding of the differences and similarities between German and other languages and of how new words are formed in the human language.

Free Research Field

言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

欧米では新語形成のあり方が言語学（理論言語学・歴史言語学）で脚光を浴びるようになって久しい。本研究ではこの分野の研究に取り組み，国外でも成果を公表することで国際研究ネットワークを形成できたため，我が国の言語研究の国際的プレゼンスの向上につながることが期待できる。研究では現在の言語研究の主流となるインターネット上の大型電子コーパスを用いることで従来の印刷媒体に頼る研究では解明が容易でない現象を捉えることができた。また，こうした手法は将来のコンピューターを利用した言語研究にも繋がりうるもので，社会的にも様々な応用可能性があるだろう。