A Comprehensive Study of Discourse Contextual Factors in Grammatical Phenomena

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26884045
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Osaka University (2015); Reitaku University (2014)
• Principal Investigator: Kogusuri Tetsuya 大阪大学, 言語文化研究科(研究院), 講師 (40736493)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 再帰表現 / 身体部位名詞 / 結果構文 / 目的語省略 / 相反する容認性判断

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study is to consider how the linguistic expression, though unacceptable as a simple sentence, can be judged as acceptable in a larger discourse context. Through this two-year project, I have done two case studies: the passivization of reflexive expressions with body-part nouns and the object omission in the resultative construction. The conclusion is that, with the aid of discourse context, the event denoted by the verb and its participants receives an interpretation appropriate for the relevant phenomena (an appropriate event construal). Our study provides evidence for the constructionism, the idea that grammatical structure and contextual information as well as individual words contribute to the interpretation of a sentence.

Free Research Field

英語学、言語学