2014 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Rendaku: Towards a Hierarchy of Blocking Constraints
| Project/Area Number |
26370436
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| Research Institution | Yamagata University |
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Principal Investigator |
IRWIN Mark 山形大学, 人文学部, 教授 (40361240)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
VANCE Timothy 大学共同利用機関法人人間文化研究機構国立国語研究所, 大学共同利用機関等の部局等, 教授 (60581387)
リダン ポール 大阪女学院短期大学, 国際・英語学部, 教授 (70571777)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | rendaku / statistical analysis / Japanese / morphophonology / SPSS / database |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Two 3rd-year Yamagata University students carried out database input between June and November. Planning meetings were held in June and February. The June meeting in Tokyo went through the schedule for the 3-year research plan, while the February meeting in Yamagata examined the database in detail. Discussion included (1) the changes in the 2015-1-30 update of Rendaku Database (v2.5); (2) the targeting of eight principal research questions for immediate further investigation; (3) the Identification of relevant variables and the appropriate statistical tests which may be applied; and (4) the preparation of a modified version of the database for import into SPSS. The eight principal research questions mentioned in (2) above are:
Do deadjectivals undergo rendaku more often than other parts of speech (except verbs)? Do some parts of speech in the 1st element trigger rendaku more often than others? Do nasal or voiced consonants at the end of the first element trigger rendaku more often than voiceless consonants?Do 2nd elements beginning in ‘ha’ gyo, esp. ‘fu’, undergo rendaku more often than others? Do 2nd elements consisting of a single mora undergo rendaku less frequently? Is there a correlation between frequency of 2nd element and rendaku rate? Do non-canonical length 1st elements (i.e., not 2 morae) trigger rendaku more often than canonical length ones? Do borrowed foreign 1st elements dampen rendaku?
Attempting to answer these questions will form the thrust of our future research and the core of FY2 research.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
At the February 2015 meeting, progress was also made on the variables to be analysed in the database. It was decided that the following previously identified variables will be employed:
Entry no. (ENTRYNUM), 2nd element (E2), 1st mora of 2nd element (E2FSTMOR), number of mora in 2nd element (E2NUMMOR), Frequency of 2nd element (E2FREQ); Part of speech of 2nd element (E2POS), 1st element (E1), Final mora of 1st element (E1FINMOR), Vocabulary stratum of 1st element (E1VSTRAT), No. of morae in 1st element (E1NUMMOR), Part of speech of 1st element (E1POS), Shin Wa-Ei Daijten status (SHINWAEI), Koujien status (KOUJIEN).
Conversely, it was decided that the following previously identified variables will be employed discarded: Spacer column (B); Vocabulary stratum of 2nd element (E); Accent pattern in modern standard Tokyo Japanese (G); Accent pattern in proto-Japanese (H); Thematic role of noun to deverbal (K); Oxford corpus data (W).
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
As mentioned above, work in FY2 will utilize the variables outlined in the PROGRESS STATUS in order to answer the eight principal research questions outlined in SUMMARY OF RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS. The first meeting of FY2 will, be held in Osaka in May 2015, at which it is hoped discussion will take place on the first four of these questions. Further meetings are planned in autumn and in early 2016, in either Yamagata or Osaka, to discuss the remaining four questions and to begin planning both a paper in a national or international journal (as yet undecided) and a presentation at an international conference (probably Japanese/Korean Linguistics 2016).
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| Causes of Carryover |
The bulk of FY2 funding will be used for travel expenses. This will cover a meeting in Osaka in May and a further two meetings in the autumn and early 2016 in either Osaka or Yamagata (venue to be decided). Note that the second named researcher has moved affiliation from Chiba to Osaka. The small amount of money left over from FY1 was caused by being able to make purchases from the regular Faculty expense budget. It will be put to good use in FY2.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
The remainder of the budget will be used for books and miscellaneous expenses.
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