A Empirical Study of the Syntactic Mechanism Based on the Interface with the Discourse

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520547
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: NISHIOKA Nobuaki 九州大学, 人文科学研究科(研究院), 教授 (80198431)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MASUTOMI Kazuhiro 宮城学院女子大学, 学芸学部, 准教授 (90452795) ; TANAKA Hiroyoshi 産業医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (40565751) ; DANSAKO Masahiko 九州大学, 大学院人文科学研究院・専門研究院 (50581534)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 生成文法 / ミニマリストプログラム / 談話とのインターフェイス / フェイズ / topic/focus / 談話連結 / 右方移動 / 機能範疇の獲得

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study has explored apparent exceptional syntactic behavior of various phenomena, including echo-questions, D-linked expressions, -no nominative of Kumamoto Japanese, rightward movement and language acquisition of infants, in light of recent proposals of the Minimalist Program in the generative grammar and explicated the role of ‘phase’ as the interface structure with the discourse. It has verified how features involved in topic, focus, specificity and meta question/negation are reflected in syntactic structures and play a part in the mechanism of syntactic derivations.

Free Research Field

人文学　英語学・言語学　統語論