A Comparative Study on the Production and Acquisition of English and Japanese Rhetorical Questions

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23520703
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Takachiho University
• Principal Investigator: MATSUYA Akemi 高千穂大学, 人間科学部, 教授 (60459261)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 統語論 / 運用論 / 英語教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study explores the production and acquisition of rhetorical questions (RQs) with particular reference to English and Japanese. We show that some phonological characteristics appear when RQs are generated within the appropriate context. We clarify that English RQs with multiple wh-words are accepted, as Japanese RQs are, under the condition that the action, which is involved in the proposition, is completed, and both the addresser and the addressee share the knowledge. For both English and Japanese RQs, we demonstrate islands are not absolute and wh-words can be extracted from the lower position of the structural hierarchy of non-finite sentences. We prove that young children tend to have difficulties with the output of RQs because they cannot share common ground with the people around them. We explore how frequently RQs occur in the second language acquisition of the English of university students.

Free Research Field

言語学　英語教育