An Investigation into a Theory of Anaphora with Special Reference to the Grammaticalization of Reflexive Pronouns

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22520493
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Ochanomizu University
• Principal Investigator: NOGUCHI Tohru お茶の水女子大学, 大学院人間文化創成科学研究科, 准教授 (20272685)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 再帰代名詞 / 再帰形式 / 再帰性 / 照応 / 文法化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this research is to investigate the morphosyntactic and semantic properties of reflexive forms in English and Japanese from synchronic as well as diachronic viewpoints, and to consider the way they should be analyzed in generative grammatical terms vis-à-vis the recent development of grammaticalization approaches, thus aiming at a synthesis of the two. Historically speaking, there are various ways to reflexive-mark predicates in English as well as in Japanese, but because of its historical quirk Japanese has developed a system where native and Sino-Japanese reflexive forms co-exist, although the latter have eventually prevailed as productive forms. This type of variation cannot be explained in terms of syntactic operations of Agree/Move, as proposed by some researchers, but should be attributed to incorporation in the lexicon as well as in the syntax, the relation between them showing the effects of blocking and being governed by the principle of economy.

Free Research Field

理論言語学