2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Semantic and Pragmatic Studies on Cleft Sentences
| Project/Area Number |
19520362
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Meikai University |
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Principal Investigator |
NISHIYAMA Yuji Meikai University, 外国語学部, 教授 (90051747)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KUMAMOTO Chiaki 佐賀大学, 文化教育学部, 教授 (10153355)
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
KOYA Itsuki 慶應義塾大学, 法学部, 教授 (80234904)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2007 – 2009
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| Keywords | 分裂文 / コピュラ文 / 変項名詞句 / 指示的名詞句 / 叙述名詞句 / 関連性理論 |
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| Research Abstract |
A cleft sentence is a construction used to mark an element in a sentence as a focus. Japanese cleft sentences have the forms "A de aru no wa B da" and "A de aru no ga B da", while English cleft sentences have the "clefting" form "It is … that …." This study gave semantic and pragmatic considerations to various problems concerning (English and Japanese) cleft sentences, through the application of a new and highly effective theory on copular sentences and noun phrases. Specifically, it took notice of the contrast in acceptability between two types of sentences exemplified by "Shachoo de aru no wa aitsu da" (It is that guy who is the president.) and "?Hannin de aru no wa aitsu da" (It is that guy who is the murderer.) and pursued the internal relation between the referentiality of noun phrase A and the semantic structure of cleft sentences.
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