2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
THE MECHANISM OF THE CHANGE IN ARGUMENT STRUCTURE FORMATION IN ENGLISH : THE DEMISE OF IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS AND THE EMERGENCE OF SYNTACTIC PASSIVES
| Project/Area Number |
21520516
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
English linguistics
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Hosei University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
OSAWA Fuyo 法政大学, 文学部, 教授 (10194127)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2009 – 2011
|
| Keywords | 非人称構文 / 受動態構文 / 項構造 / 機能範疇 / 語彙・意味志向型 |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
This research has aimed to give an explanation to two syntactic changes which took place in the history of English. The two salient changes are(1) the demise of impersonal constructions and(2) the emergence of syntactic passives and subsequent emergence of new passive constructions like indirect passives and prepositional passives. These changes are due to the change which took place in argument structure formation in English. That is, the English language shifted from a lexical-thematic to structure-dependent language. This means that the clause structure is formed mainly on structural reasons like the subject requirement rather than meaning of the predicate.
|
