A Contrastive Study on the Meaning and Interpretation of Noun Phrases in Japanese and Korean

2024 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K00549
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: University of Miyazaki
• Principal Investigator: Kim Jihyun 宮崎大学, 国際連携機構, 教授 (40612388)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 小熊 猛 金沢大学, 外国語教育系, 教授 (60311015)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2025-03-31
• Keywords: 名詞句 / 韓国語 / 日本語 / 意味論 / 語用論 / 対照分析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aims to elucidate the characteristics of noun phrases (NPs) in modern Japanese and Korean through a contrastive analysis grounded in semantics and pragmatics. Focusing on NP structures that combine with various elements and utterances in which NPs function either independently or as predicates, the analysis adopts a Japanese-Korean comparative perspective. The findings reveal that nominalization of predicates and utterances is more prevalent in Japanese than in Korean. Particular attention is given to the contrastive description of action nominals, which are especially characteristic of Japanese. The study also examines contrastively the Japanese particle "no" and the Korean "uy", as well as NPs involving quantifiers. Moreover, it demonstrates that differences in copular constructions between the two languages significantly contribute to the variation observed in nominal expressions, including so-called “noun-final” sentences.

Free Research Field

日韓対照言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、従来の日韓対照研究で注目されていた、所謂「名詞志向性・動詞志向性」という性質と関わる両言語の違いを最も顕著に示していると思われる「名詞」に焦点を当て、多様な名詞的表現における両言語の意味的・語用論的特徴を記述した。単に、名詞が多いというのではなく、動詞が自然なところに名詞が用いられる動作性名詞述語の働きや、名詞止め文における述語の機能などを対照分析することで、名詞志向性の内実を究明しようとした。なお、先行研究がほぼ皆無と言える数量表現の日韓対照分析、名詞的表現が韓国語より日本語に多いとう現象の根底に、両言語のコピュラ構造の違いが存在することの解明は、類型論に示唆するところも大きい。