Choosing honorific expressions: integrating generalized hierarchical Bayesian modeling into theoretical linguistics via corpus analysis

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K21957
• 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: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Akitaka 大阪大学, 大学院人文学研究科(言語文化学専攻), 准教授 (70879965)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-09-11 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 定量的言語分析 / コーパス言語学 / 敬語 / 発話行為 / ベイズ統計学 / 言葉の変異・変化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research project began with two main objectives: first, to analyze corpus data using a statistical method called Generalized Hierarchical Bayesian to objectively explore and describe the usage of honorific constructions, and second, to theorize "why honorific expressions compete" within the framework of distributed morphology. The project was initiated with these two objectives in mind. In particular, the following paper, published as an international paper, further developed the generalized hierarchical Bayesian model described above and connected it to the issue of historical change in honorifics, using a state-of-the-art statistical method that no one has used before in current linguistics. This is a symbolic paper of this project, which discusses the change in question within the framework of distributed morphology.
Yamada, A. (2023) Looking for default vocabulary insertion rules: Diachronic morphosyntax of the Japanese addressee-honorification system.

Free Research Field

定量的言語分析

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

敬語の研究に限らず、複数の言語表現がどのように選択されているのか、また、歴史的にその選択傾向がどのように変化していくのか、という問い自体は、これまで様々な研究者が向き合ってきた重要な問いであるが、これまで利用されてきた研究手法は、初等統計学の域を出ず複雑な現象を理論的に分析するために必要な適切な量的分析の礎は非常に脆弱であった。しかし、本プロジェクトが成就したことで、最先端である統計手法がどのように言語分析に応用できるのかについて後続研究の範となるモデルケースを示すことができた。