An Integrated Generative Biolinguistic Approach to the Design, Development and Evolution of the Human Language Faculty

2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23242025
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: FUJITA Koji 京都大学, 人間・環境学研究科(研究院), 教授 (00173427)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): FUKUI Naoki 上智大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (60208931) ; ZUSHI Mihoko 神奈川大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (00264705) ; KUNO Masakazu 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 准教授 (00453621) ; KATO Takaomi 上智大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (20548151) ; NARITA Hiroki 早稲田大学, 高等研究所, 助教 (60609767) ; YUSA Noriaki 宮城学院女子大学, 学芸学部, 教授 (40182670) ; SUGISAKI Koji 三重大学, 人文学部, 教授 (60362331) ; ONO Hajime 近畿大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (90510561) ; OBATA Miki 東京理科大学, 理学部, 准教授 (80581694) ; IKE-UCHI Masayuki 津田塾大学, 学芸学部, 教授 (20105381) ; UEDA Masanobu 北海道大学, メティア・コミュニケーション研究院, 教授 (30133797) ; HOSAKA Michio 日本大学, 文理学部, 教授 (10229164)
• Research Collaborator: BOECKX Cedric ICREA/Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, 教授
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2014-03-31
• Keywords: 併合 / 回帰性 / 構造依存性 / ブローカ野 / 内心性 / 対称性 / 進化的妥当性 / 生物進化・文化進化

Research Abstract

This research project has conducted biolinguistic studies of human language on the basis of the latest development of generative grammar and provided new insights into the Design, Development and Evolution of language.
(I) Design: Formal properties of the fundamental syntactic computational operations Merge and Search, together with their neural substrates, have been identified. (II) Development: Correlations between parameter setting in first/second language acquisition and brain functions have been discovered. Selective functions of BA44/45 in Broca's area with respect to Merge have been elucidated. (III) Evolution: On the basis of philosophical considerations of biology and archaeological evidence, a theory of the motor control origin of syntax and a theory of earlier emergence of human language have been proposed. The cultural evolutionary nature of certain syntactic phenomena including Case and agreement has been clarified in relation to their effects on externalization.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] 生成文法と複雑系言語進化 (2014)
  • Author(s): 藤田耕司
  • Journal Title: 計測と制御 Volume: 9 (印刷中)
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Generalized Search and Cyclic Derivation by Phase : A Preliminary Study (2014)
  • Author(s): Takaomi Kato, Masakazu Kuno, Hiroki Narita, Mihoko Zushi, and Naoki Fukui
  • Journal Title: Sophia Linguistica Volume: 61 Pages: 203-222
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] 人間言語の基礎は複雑なのか? (2014)
  • Author(s): 成田広樹・飯島和樹・酒井邦嘉
  • Journal Title: BRAIN and NERVE Volume: 66(3) Pages: 276-279
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] αα (2014)
  • Author(s): 遊佐典昭
  • Journal Title: 英文学会誌 Volume: 42 Pages: 45-64
• [Journal Article] A Merge-Only Theory of Human Language Evolution : How Plausible Is It? (2013)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Journal Title: 19^<th> International Congress of Linguists Abstracts Booklet Volume: 19 Pages: 232
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Computational Principles of Syntax in the Regions Specialized for Language : Integrating Theoretical Linguistics and Functional Imaging (2013)
  • Author(s): Shinri Ohta, Naoki Fukui and Kuniyoshi L. Sakai
  • Journal Title: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience Volume: 7 Pages: 1-13
  • DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00204
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Toward Localizing Agree and Internal Merge (2013)
  • Author(s): Masakazu Kuno
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the 15^<th> Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar Volume: 15 Pages: 227-232
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Phasing Out Projection : Considerations from the Syntax-Phonology Interface (2013)
  • Author(s): Bridget Samuels and Hiroki Narita
  • Journal Title: Linguistic Analysis Volume: 38(3-4) Pages: 357-391
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Binding and dependency length in gapless relative clauses (2013)
  • Author(s): Hajime Ono and Yu Ikemoto
  • Journal Title: 信学技報 (電子情報通信学会技術研究報告 TL2013) Volume: 113 Pages: 87-92
• [Journal Article] On the Irrelevance of E-languages to the Question of Language Evolution (2013)
  • Author(s): Masayuki Ike-uchi
  • Journal Title: 19^<th> International Congress of Linguists Abstracts Booklet Volume: 19 Pages: 319
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] 格と外在化 (2013)
  • Author(s): 保坂道雄
  • Journal Title: 日本英文学会第85回大会 Proceedings Volume: 85 Pages: 97-98
• [Journal Article] Review of Anna Maria Di Sciullo and Cedric Boeckx, eds (2013)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Journal Title: The Biolinguistic Enterprise : New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty, Oxford University Press. Studies in English Literature English Volume: Number 54 Pages: 175-184
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Syntactic Computation in the Human Brain : The Degree of Merger as a Key Factor (2013)
  • Author(s): Shinri Ohta, Naoki Fukui and Kuniyoshi L. Sakai
  • Journal Title: PLoS ONE Volume: 8(2) Pages: e56230
  • DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056230
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] 言語の脳科学 : 感受性期以降の統語発達を中心に (2012)
  • Author(s): 遊佐典昭
  • Journal Title: KLS 32 : Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Kansai Linguistic Society Pages: 323-333
• [Journal Article] Review of R. K. Larson et al. eds. 2010 (2012)
  • Author(s): Koji Sugisaki
  • Journal Title: The Evolution of Human Language : Biolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. English Linguistics Volume: 29 Pages: 579-586
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] A Tangled Web of Biolinguistic Questions : Review of Anna Maria Di Sciullo and Cedric Boeckx, eds (2011)
  • Author(s): Hiroki Narita, Takaomi Kato, and Mihoko Zushi
  • Journal Title: The Biolinguistic Enterprise : New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty, Oxford University Press. English Linguistics Volume: 30(2) Pages: 780-791
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] Four Wrong Ideas in Evolutionary Linguistics (2014)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Organizer: The 10^<th> International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG X)
  • Place of Presentation: Vienna University, Austria
  • Year and Date: 2014-04-10
• [Presentation] An On-going Research : The Experimental Design (2014)
  • Author(s): Shinri Ohta, Masatomi Iizawa, Kazuki Iijima, Tomoya Nakai, Naoki Fukui, Mihoko Zushi, Hiroki Narita and Kuniyoshi L Sakai
  • Organizer: CREST ワークショッフ
  • Place of Presentation: 東京大学
  • Year and Date: 2014-03-07
• [Presentation] The Biolinguistic Enterprise : Agenda (2014)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Organizer: Goals and Methods. Semniars by Prof. Koji Fujita
  • Place of Presentation: National University of Singapore
  • Year and Date: 2014-02-19
  • Invited
• [Presentation] 幼児英語におけるWhy not?とその理論的含意 (2013)
  • Author(s): 杉崎鉱司
  • Organizer: 日本英語学会第31回大会
  • Place of Presentation: 福岡大学
  • Year and Date: 2013-11-10
• [Presentation] Phi-Agreement in Japanese : On the Person Restriction of Case-valuation (2013)
  • Author(s): Miki Obata and Mina Sugimura
  • Organizer: Western Conference on Linguistics
  • Place of Presentation: Arizona State University, USA
  • Year and Date: 2013-11-08
• [Presentation] Backward Dependency Formation in Japanese Gapless Relative Clauses (2013)
  • Author(s): Hajime Ono and Yu Ikemoto
  • Organizer: Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP)
  • Place of Presentation: Aix-Marseille Universite, Marseille, France
  • Year and Date: 2013-09-02
• [Presentation] 心身二元論を超えて : デカルト・ニュートン・チョムスキー (2013)
  • Author(s): 成田広樹
  • Organizer: 第87回かがみやま言語科学コロキアム.
  • Place of Presentation: 広島大学
  • Year and Date: 2013-08-22
  • Invited
• [Presentation] Social Interaction Affects Neural Measures of Syntactic Processing : Evidence from fMRI (2013)
  • Author(s): Noriaki Yusa, Masatoshi Koizumi and Jungho Kim
  • Organizer: 19^<th> International Congress of Linguists
  • Place of Presentation: Université de Genève, Switzerland
  • Year and Date: 2013-07-26
• [Presentation] A Merge-Only Theory of Human Language Evolution : How Plausible Is It? (2013)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Organizer: 19^<th> International Congress of Linguists
  • Place of Presentation: Université de Genève, Switzerland
  • Year and Date: 2013-07-25
• [Presentation] On the Irrelevance of E-languages to the Question of Language Evolution (2013)
  • Author(s): Masayuki Ike-uchi
  • Organizer: 19^<th> International Congress of Linguists
  • Place of Presentation: Université de Genève, Switzerland
  • Year and Date: 2013-07-25
• [Presentation] 格と外在化 (2013)
  • Author(s): 保坂道雄
  • Organizer: 日本英文学会第85回大会シンポジウム「格と統語変化」
  • Place of Presentation: 東北大学
  • Year and Date: 2013-07-25
• [Presentation] Imaging Language Processing in the Brain (2013)
  • Author(s): Noriaki Yusa
  • Organizer: The English Society of Japan 6th International Spring Forum
  • Place of Presentation: 東京大学
  • Year and Date: 2013-04-27
  • Invited
• [Presentation] In Defense of the Merge-Only Hypothesis (2013)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Organizer: GLOW 36 Biolinguistics Workshop
  • Place of Presentation: Lund University, Sweden
  • Year and Date: 2013-04-02
• [Presentation] 人間の言語能力と知性の起源に迫る (2013)
  • Author(s): 藤田耕司
  • Organizer: 「京の府民大学」対象講座 京都大学公開講座
  • Place of Presentation: 京都大学
  • Year and Date: 2013-03-17
  • Invited
• [Presentation] Marlyse Baptista and Samuel Epstein. Parameters as Third Factor Timing Optionality (2013)
  • Author(s): Miki Obata
  • Organizer: The 87^<th> Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
  • Place of Presentation: Marriot Copley Place, Boston, USA
  • Year and Date: 2013-01-05
• [Presentation] Merge and Search (2012)
  • Author(s): Masakazu Kuno, Takaomi Kato, Hiroki Narita, Mihoko Zushi and Naoki Fukui
  • Organizer: 日本英語学会30周年記念大会特別ワークショップ "Basic Operations of Syntax."
  • Place of Presentation: 慶應義塾大学
  • Year and Date: 2012-11-11
  • Invited
• [Presentation] On the nature of the naturalistic approach in biolinguistics (2012)
  • Author(s): Masanobu Ueda
  • Organizer: 日本英語学会30周年記念大会特別ワークショップ "Current and Future Issues in Biolinguistics."
  • Place of Presentation: 慶応義塾大学
  • Year and Date: 2012-11-11
  • Invited
• [Presentation] 生成文法と言語の多様性 (2012)
  • Author(s): 福井直樹
  • Organizer: 日本エドワード・サピア協会第27回研究発表会
  • Place of Presentation: 上智大学
  • Year and Date: 2012-10-27
  • Invited
• [Presentation] The Hands that Rocked the Cradle of Language (2012)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Organizer: ICREA International Symposium on Biolinguistics
  • Place of Presentation: University of Barcelona, Spain
  • Year and Date: 2012-10-03
  • Invited
• [Presentation] 併合に基づく日本語の格付与について (2012)
  • Author(s): 辻子美保子
  • Organizer: 大塚英語教育研究会2012年度第4回定例会
  • Place of Presentation: 筑波大学東京キャンパス文京校舎
  • Year and Date: 2012-09-08
  • Invited
• [Book] 言語の設計・発達・進化 : 生物言語学探究 (2014)
  • Author(s): 藤田耕司・福井直樹・遊佐典昭・池内正幸(編)、藤田耕司・福井直樹・辻子美保子・久野正和・加藤孝臣・成田広樹・遊佐典昭・杉崎鉱司・小野創・小畑美貴・池内正幸・上田雅信・保坂道雄・Cedric Boeckx, 他(著)
  • Publisher: 開拓社 (印刷中)
• [Book] T. Roeper and M. Speas eds. Recursion : Complexity in Cognition (2014)
  • Author(s): Koji Fujita
  • Publisher: Springer (印刷中)
• [Book] Endocentric Structuring of Projection-free Syntax (2014)
  • Author(s): Hiroki Narita
  • Publisher: John Benjamins (印刷中)
• [Book] B. Suranyi ed. Minimalist Approaches to Syntactic Locality (2014)
  • Author(s): Hiroki Narita
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press (印刷中)
• [Book] J. D. Wright et al. eds. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd Edition) (2014)
  • Author(s): C.-T. James Huang and Hiroki Narita
  • Publisher: Elsevier (印刷中)
• [Book] M. den Dikken ed. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax (2014)
  • Author(s): Samuel David Epstein, Hisatsugu Kitahara, Miki Obata and T. Daniel Seely
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press (印刷中)
• [Book] A. Carnie, D. Siddiqi and Y. Sato eds. Routledge Handbook of Syntax (2014)
  • Author(s): Naoki Fukui and Hiroki Narita
  • Total Pages: 734 (3-23)
  • Publisher: Routledge
• [Book] 統辞構造論 (2014)
  • Author(s): ノーム・チョムスキー(著)、福井直樹・辻子美保子(訳)
  • Total Pages: 433
  • Publisher: 岩波書店
• [Book] 生成言語研究の現在 (2013)
  • Author(s): 池内正幸・郷路拓也(編)、池内正幸・保坂道雄・藤田耕司 他(著)
  • Total Pages: 263 (1-9, 67-93, 95-123)
  • Publisher: ひつじ書房
• [Book] M. Whong, K.-H. Gil and H. Marsden. eds. Universal Grammar and the Second Language Classroom (2013)
  • Author(s): Neal Snape and Noriaki Yusa
  • Total Pages: 252 (161-183)
  • Publisher: Springer
• [Book] M. Becker, J. Grinstead and J. Rothman eds. Generative Linguistics and Acquisition : Studies in Honor of Nina M. Hyams (2013)
  • Author(s): Koji Sugisaki and William Snyder
  • Total Pages: 358 (291-308)
  • Publisher: John Benjamins
• [Book] M. Hosaka, M. Ogura, H. Suzuki and A. Tani eds. Phases of the History of English (2013)
  • Author(s): Michio Hosaka
  • Total Pages: 384 (197-210)
  • Publisher: Peter Lang
• [Book] チョムスキー言語基礎論集 (2012)
  • Author(s): ノーム・チョムスキー(著)、福井直樹(編訳)
  • Total Pages: 460
  • Publisher: 岩波書店
• [Book] 新・自然科学としての言語学 (2012)
  • Author(s): 福井直樹
  • Total Pages: 360
  • Publisher: 筑摩書房
• [Book] 進化言語学の構築 新しい人間科学を目指して (2012)
  • Author(s): 藤田耕司・岡ノ谷一夫(編)、池内正幸・藤田耕司・遊佐典昭, 他(著)
  • Total Pages: 325(1-11, 15-34, 55-75, 77-94)
  • Publisher: ひつじ書房
• [Book] 生成文法の企て (2011)
  • Author(s): ノーム・チョムスキー(著)、福井直樹・辻子美保子(訳)
  • Total Pages: 462
  • Publisher: 岩波書店
• [Remarks] ホームページ 日本生物言語学プロジェクト
  • URL: http://www.bioling.jp/
• [Remarks] 国際会議・国内会議等「京都生物言語学会議」主催 2012年3月12日・京都大学
• [Remarks] 「第9回言語進化の国際会議(EVOLANG IX)」共催 2012年3月13-16日・キャンパスプラザ京都
• [Remarks] 日本英語学会30 周年記念大会特別ワークショップ<Current and Future Issues in Biolinguistics> <Basic Operations in Syntax>企画・運営・実施 2012年11月11日・慶應義塾大学
• [Remarks] 「生物言語学・東京ワークショップ」主催 2013年12月15日・上智大学