An integrative study of alternation phenomena with Japanese light verbs within the Distributed Morphology framework

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13185
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Kogakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Akimoto Takayuki 工学院大学, 教育推進機構(公私立大学の部局等), 助教 (70824845)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 軽動詞 / 自他交替 / 動名詞 / 動詞由来複合語 / 尊敬語 / 分散形態論 / 日本語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Recent research on the verbal domain or argument structure has been aimed at elucidating the syntactic, morphological, and semantic roles of the heads that constitute the verb domain, Root, v, and Voice as well as their interaction. In this study, various phenomena involving the Japanese light verb "su(ru)/nar(u)" are examined from the viewpoint of "alternation," providing a theoretical explanation for the mechanism of transitivity alternation and the asymmetric distribution of "su(ru)" and "nar(u)" in Japanese. More specifically, this study proposed that the light verb "su(ru)" and "nar(u)" are realized with the Voice head, the former as an elsewhere form, and the latter when the Voice does not introduce an external argument and is in a local relationship with v.

Free Research Field

理論言語学、統語論、形態論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまで、日本語のVoice主要部の理論的実在性については他言語との比較などから統語的・意味的観点から保証されていたが、本研究により日本語においては形態的にもVoiceを想定する理論的妥当性が保証されることになった。さらに、本研究の提案が正しいとすれば、これまで独立して研究されてきた「動名詞」は、「動詞由来複合語」と厳密には同じシステム(主要部と主要部の併合および範疇素性共有によるラベリング)で派生されることになる。このことは、他の複合語(複合形容詞)の派生や主要部と主要部の併合におけるラベリングメカニズムの解明に大きな意義をもつことになる。