Change-of-state expressions in German: lexical and syntactic forms

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370473
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Mie University
• Principal Investigator: Kang Minkyeong 三重大学, 人文学部, 特任准教授 (30510416)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 状態変化 / 使役構文 / 機能動詞結合 / アスペクト / コーパス / コロケーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of German causative forms (change-of-state verbs, lassen-constructions and zum ... bringen-constructions) through a corpus survey and further to analyze the relationship between the constructions. In particular, the semantic differences between the lassen-construction and the zum ... bringen-construction were examined by investigating the types of verbs that are embedded in each construction and their frequency in use. As a result, it was observed that the aspectual characteristics of the verbs embedded in the lassen-construction differed significantly from those of verbs embedded in the zum ... bringen-construction, i.e., perfective verbs occur in lassen-constructions with higher frequency and imperfective verbs occur more often in zum ... bringen-constructions. In addition, when combined with the same verb, the constructions display different patterns of object noun phrases.

Free Research Field

ドイツ語学