Constructional Changes and the Development of Interpersonal Functions in English and Japanese: A Usage-based Construction Grammar Approach

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00686
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02080:English linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Ohashi Hiroshi 九州大学, 基幹教育院, 教授 (40169040)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 対人的関係 / トピックシフト / 談話標識 / 譲歩文 / 使用基盤 / 構文 / 主観化 / 間主観化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study revealed the development of interpersonal functions in expressions in concessive constructions
in English and Japanese is motivated by their constructional schema where the speaker superficially accepts an utterance or attitude mostly by the addressee in the concessive clause and then makes a contradictory claim in the main clause. By positing four semantic domains which consist of the three levels of content, epistemic, and speech-act originally proposed by Sweetser (1990) and the text level supplemented by Crevels (2000), the development of the topic-shift function in the English concessive construction is construed as a natural extension from the speech-act level to the text-level in terms both of synchronic polysemy and diachronic semantic extension. The same explanation holds for the development of the topic-shift function in the adversative conjunctions "but" of English and "shikashi" of Japanese.

Free Research Field

認知言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

言語変化はある表現が特定の場面で新しい解釈を許すようになり、それが定着することによっておこることが多いが、「ーではあるが、ーだ」という譲歩文や逆接表現は、ある言明をいったん受け入れ（譲歩）た上でそれと矛盾する言明を行うという複合的な意味構造を持ち、新しい解釈が生まれにくく、「意味変化の行き止まり」とよばれることもあった。しかし実際には、anywayに「それにもかかわらず」という譲歩の意味に加えて、話題をもとに戻す合図としての用法があるように、話題を展開、転換させる機能を持つ譲歩表現が見られる。この無関係に見える意味への変化には言語使用に関わる多くの興味深い要因が絡んでいる。