2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

On Verification of the Validity of the Theory of Universal Grammar for the Varieties of Languages

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21520507
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	English linguistics
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	OBA Yukio 大阪大学, 文学研究科, 教授 (90108259)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Keywords	普遍文法理論 / WH疑問文 / 問い返しの疑問文 / 多重WH疑問文 / 局所性
Research Abstract	In this research, I studied on three types of questions such as normal questions, echo questions and multiple wh-questions in various languages in order to verify the validity of the Theory of Universal Grammar(TUG). Firstly, I absorbed the theoretical backgrounds, principles, rules and operations of the TUG, and then examined the previous analyses of these questions. Secondly, I made out the database of these questions in various languages which have been presented in papers and books concerning them. Furthermore, I pointed out that it is necessary to assume more detailed systems incorporating linguistic parameters, in order to account for the collected linguistic data within the framework of the TUG.