2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
On the Function and the Process of Loss of the Ending -e of Adjectives in Late Middle English
| Project/Area Number |
20520434
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
English linguistics
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
FUJIWARA Yasuaki University of Tsukuba, 人文学部, 教授 (30040067)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2008 – 2010
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| Keywords | 後期中英語 / 形容詞 / 語尾 / 機能 / 脱落 / マンデヴィル旅行記 / 有標性 / 数の区別 |
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| Research Abstract |
As a result of the analysis of the three manuscripts of Mandeville"s Travels in about 1400 AD we found each scribe discriminated between marked and unmarked endings of a given adjective in the positions following its headword, disregarding the difference of the number, the origin, and the pattern of inflection of an adjective in the earlier periods. Hence, contrary to the commonly established view the ending -e is far from being lost in Late Middle English. The markedness condition is indispensable for any promising investigation of morphological diachronic changes of adjectives.
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