A study of phonological mechanism of truncation: An experimental and contrastive approach

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23069
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0102:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Moon Changyun 筑波大学, 人文社会系, 准教授 (60845030)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 短縮語 / OCP / 音節 / 特殊モーラ / 声調 / 有標性 / 外来語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research examines the phonological rules in the formation of clipped compounds (e.g., ‘dezitaru kamera (digital camera)’ being clipped into ‘dezikame’, from an experimental and comparative linguistic perspective. Previous studies have elucidated from the perspective the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), driven by articulatory similarity. However, they have not thoroughly investigated the specific factors contributing to other phonological similarities.
Furthermore, previous research has been confined to generalizing phenomena within individual languages, falling short of examining clipped compounds as a universal linguistic phenomenon. Therefore, the present study takes a cross-linguistic comparative approach to comprehensively describing the linguistic diversity and universality in the formation of clipped compounds.

Free Research Field

言語学、日本語学、音韻論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

OCPは，日本語を含め多くの言語で観察および分析されているが，短縮語形成におけるOCPの影響を俎上に載せた実験的研究は管見の限り存在しない。また，短縮語形成における音韻特徴については，他言語と比較・対照した上で総合的記述を目指している研究はこれまでにない。本研究によって日・中・韓短縮現象の音韻特性が解明された暁には，通言語学的研究も期待できる。