Syntactic studies of Japanese dialect from the point of view of generative grammar

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23652094
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Kwansei Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: HONDA Masaru 関西学院大学, 総合政策学部, 教授 (30132319)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): IMANISHI Yusuke 関西学院大学, 総合政策学部, 助教 (80734011)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 生成文法理論 / 統語論 / 日本語方言変異 / 喜界島

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The present research focuses on the idea that dialectal differences fundamentally involve the same syntactic mechanisms as found to work in language in general, and attempts to identify what syntactic properties contribute to dialectal variation. As empirical research, the present research investigated and analyzed the Kikai language spoken on Kikai Island in Amami. As a result, it turned out that Complementizer Deletion, N’-Deletion and Case patterns all contribute to language variation. Syntactic mechanisms behind them have not been fully identified, but this way of research should lead to a more articulated theory in which micro-variation and macro-variation do not differ essentially in that the rules and principles isolated for macro-variation are also responsible for micro-variation.

Free Research Field

言語学・生成文法研究