Formal features and interpretation of plain/ non-plain noun phrases in Japanese

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370439
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Meikai University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAI Nobumi 明海大学, ホスピタリティ・ツーリズム学部, 准教授 (30406384)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 素名詞句 / 非素名詞句 / 名詞句の形式特性 / 定的 / 不定的 / 指示性 / 英語の定表現 / 英語の不定表現

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Assume that each language has a nominal domain called XNP, which is the set of elements that are lexically or formally represented as noun phrases (Nakai 2013). The XNP domain could be subject to relatively little cross-linguistic variation, taking into account the linguistic universals. This study attempts to account for the way formal features of noun phrases are represented, showing the remarkable contrast between Japanese and English in terms of the way each noun-phrase form clips the features out of the XNP domain in the respective languages.
This study argues that Japanese noun phrases do have formal features of plainness and non-plainness, and noun phrases, such as proper nouns, pronouns, plural nouns, and nouns accompanied by any determiner/numeral, are non-plain noun phrases. The study also illustrates how the formal features of noun phrases interact with the interpretation semantically and pragmatically.

Free Research Field

意味論・語用論