Emergence of a demonstrative system in reference events

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13154
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: HIRATA Miki 北海道大学, 高等教育推進機構, 准教授 (50734919)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 共同注意 / 指示詞 / 注意誘導 / 直示

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Demonstratives cross-linguistically form systems with several alternative forms and syntactic categories.This study used natural discourse data to analyze how demonstrative systems contribute to the establishment of joint attention, which is the foundation of human linguistic communication.
This analysis led to the following two conclusions.(i) In joint attention situations between adults, speakers estimate the status of addressee’s attention to the referent and consider both the establishment of joint attention and the progress of the conversation, and select deictic, qualitative, and syntactic features of demonstratives. (ii) In interactions between humans and dogs, however, speakers switched only deictic features but did not change qualitative or syntactic features. This analysis revealed the importance of linguistic systems in reaching shared understanding among humans and also which systems are important.

Free Research Field

語用論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、言語学の立場から、学際的に注目が高まりつつある共同注意場面の研究に寄与するものである。本研究の分析対象である共同注意場面は、言語学のみならず、発達心理学、認知科学、脳科学、ロボット工学等、ヒトのコミュニケーションを扱うすべての分野で注目を集めており、言語の起源および文化的進化を考える上でも重要な社会的行動だと考えられている。本研究は、共同注意場面の研究に欠かせない指示詞を、自然談話データを用い、注意などの学際的な概念を導入して分析した。これにより、他分野でも応用可能な、分野横断的な分析の枠組みを提供することができた。