Direct Generation Analysis of Fragments of Self-Pronouns

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K13070
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02080:English linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science
• Principal Investigator: Nagatsugu Kento 長崎総合科学大学, 共通教育部門, 講師 (60779768)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 生成文法 / 省略 / 直接生成分析 / self代名詞 / 束縛理論 / 三部門並列モデル / 意味‐統語インターフェイス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research project, I investigated sentence fragments of self-pronouns and argue for the direct generation analysis of them, within the framework of Culicover and Jackendoff (2005), which is based on Jackendoff's Parallel Architecture. I argued that fragments of self-pronouns constitute counterevidence against the deletion analysis of sentence fragments as well as Binding Theory, particularly, Condition A. The direct generation analysis is consistent with Reinhart and Reuland's (1992) alternative analysis of anaphor distribution. Given their analysis, the direct generation analysis rightly predicts that self-pronouns are all "logophors" when they are fragments. Furthermore, I claimed that Parallel Architecture, more precisely, its semantics-syntax interface, needs modification so as to be consistent with the direct generation analysis of self-pronouns. The research also included basic investigations of ellipsis and self-pronouns in general, which was not planned at the beginning.

Free Research Field

英語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、生成文法において、省略に対する標準的な分析となっている削除分析への対案である直接生成分析の理論的精緻化を行うことにより直接生成分析の有望性を示すとともに、現在でも定説となっている束縛理論の経験的な限界を文断片という新しい視点から指摘することで、生成文法の新しい理論的転回の可能性を示した。更に、非主流理論である三部門並列モデルによる省略とself代名詞の具体的分析の方法を提示し、このモデルの発展にも寄与した。Self代名詞や省略について、これまで注目されていない知見を広めることで、後々には英語の教育文法の発展にも貢献すると期待される。