An Empirical Study on Syntactic Structures of Adjunct Clauses

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13223
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02080:English linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Yoshimura Riichi 九州大学, 言語文化研究院, 助教 (70815282)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 統語論 / 生成文法 / 丁寧語 / 副詞節 / 付加詞条件（付加詞の島） / （非）定形節 / 話題化 / 発話行為

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aims to achieve the following objectives: (i) to compare and analyze data from Japanese, Chinese, and English with respect to the adjunct condition and examine its universality, and (ii) to explore derivational mechanisms that systematically account for the adjunct condition and its exceptions.
As the investigation progressed, it was demonstrated that there are structural differences at the clause-peripheral domain between finite and non-finite adjunct clauses. Furthermore, even within finite adjunct clauses, there are differences in CP structures, and the presence or absence of phasehood and agreement with certain projections of the main CP domain affects the possibility of argument extraction. Additionally, by examining the occurrence of honorifics in embedded domains in Japanese, this study contributed to a further refinement of peripheral clause structures.

Free Research Field

英語学・言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、人間言語の本質を追究する生成文法理論で派生のサイクルとして仮定されているフェイズ性と節周辺構造を探求するカートグラフィ研究を軸に、付加詞条件をめぐる日中英語データの整理と付加詞節の構造構築の解明に寄与した。整理したデータに基づき、付加詞条件の例外がどのように導出されるかを調査し、付加詞条件をめぐる日中英語の言語間の違いを言語構造の観点から明らかにした。