A Study of the Necessity of Functional Projection in Thematic Theory

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13216
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02080:English linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University of Education
• Principal Investigator: Sugimoto Kenji 北海道教育大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (90712274)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 動詞句構造 / 軽動詞の種類 / 省略 / 同一性条件

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Following the constructivist view of thematic roles, we have examined syntactic structures for the following four types of verb: (i) verbs that exhibit the causative inchoative alternation, such as change of state verbs (e.g. open, move, melt,…), and causative psych verbs (e.g., worry, bother,...), (ii) verbs that exhibit the unspecified object alternation, (iii) the verb have that carries causative and experiential meanings and (iv) manner of motion verbs that can be used as both unaccusative and unergative verbs. Based on the data of applicability of the verb phrase ellipsis and pseudogapping between the alternants of the four types of verb, we have proposed verb phrase structures for them and revealed what kind of little v is necessary. We have also shown that the syntactic identity condition on ellipsis can be satisfied even when the antecedent verb phrase and the elided verb phrase form a set-subset structural relation and constitute partial identity.

Free Research Field

人文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の第１の学術的意義は、主題役割に対するアプローチとして、constructivist approachの立場を支持したことである。また第２の学術的意義は、省略に課せられる同一性条件には、Merchant (2013)で提案される統語構造上の同一性条件が必要であることを支持したことである。最後に社会的意義として、本研究での成果は、英語教育における動詞の文型の指導や省略表現の指導に役立つ可能性があることを示唆している。