A lexical-constructional approach to "exceptional" way expressions in English

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370558
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Kansai University (2014-2015); Osaka City University (2013)
• Principal Investigator: Iwata Seizi 関西大学, 文学部, 教授 (50232682)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 項構造 / 語彙意味論 / 構文理論 / 語彙・構文論的アプローチ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

There are way expressions that appear to be exceptional with respect to the following points: co-referential requirement between the subject and the possessive; self-propelled motion; and obligatory path PPs. It turns out that these apparently exceptional cases arise from a complex interplay of various factors, however. Accordingly, the following characteristics of way expressions need to be recognized: The verbal event and the motion event are related via “enablement” rather than “means”; the contribution of verb meaning is far greater; and way expressions are fundamentally the same as lexical manner-of-motion verbs like walk and roll.

Free Research Field

人文学