2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Synchronic and Diachronic Studies in the Formation of Closed Syllables in English
Project/Area Number |
20K00659
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
Section | 一般 |
Review Section |
Basic Section 02080:English linguistics-related
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Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
Principal Investigator |
Fujiwara Yasuaki 筑波大学, 人文社会系(名誉教授), 名誉教授 (30040067)
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Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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Keywords | 閉音節の形成と機能 / 母音連続の回避 / 共時的・通時的音韻研究 / 強勢の配置と機能 / 語末のあいまい母位の消失と黙字の成立 / 出わたりの機能 / 在来語と外来語の区別 |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
As a premise of our investigation into the cause of synchronic and diachronic changes of English vowels, we proposed to divide the English words into inherent words and foreign words; the former words were subject to reduction and loss of the final vowels in the course of the Middle English period, and our analysis of the English sounds was to regard the off-glide [i, u] of the second elements of diphthongs as consonantal /j, w/ and the latter part [:] of long vowels as consonantal /h/. By virtue of the consonantal function of the off-glides [i, u] and of the length unit of [i:], not only the final syllables of inherent English words but also the internal syllables are all closed and thereby able to avoid hiatus between two syllables in succession. Thus, we have come to conclude that the avoidance of hiatus, i. e., the formation of closed syllables, is the cause of synchronic and diachronic changes of English vowels.
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Free Research Field |
英語学
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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
閉音節化は英語の音韻研究ではあまり注目されてこなかったが、英語の母音連続が子音によって分断され、音節が閉ざされる閉音節化は頻繁に生じるので、子音・母音という分節音以外のわたり音の [i, u] も長母音の後半部分の[:] も子音の機能を担う/j, w, h/とみなすと、従来の英語音韻論の記述、英語の通時的音変化の仕組み、中英語期以降の通時的音変化の原因も見直す必要があり、学界に与える影響は大きい。
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