2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

An analysis of the impersonal construction by digitizing and comparing the printed editions of The Canterbury Tales

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	18K00652
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 02080:English linguistics-related
Research Institution	Hiroshima University
Principal Investigator	Ohno Hideshi 広島大学, 人間社会科学研究科(文), 教授 (80299271)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	地村彰之広島大学, 人間社会科学研究科(文), 名誉教授 (00131409) 中尾佳行広島大学, 人間社会科学研究科(教), 名誉教授 (10136153) 佐藤健一滋賀大学, データサイエンス教育研究センター, 教授 (30284219)
Project Period (FY)	2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Keywords	非人称構文 / 『カンタベリー物語』 / 15世紀刊本 / パラレルテクスト
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This research aimed to clarify the detailed process of the historical change of the impersonal (e.g. me ought) to the personal (e.g. I ought) construction. Unlike previous studies using large historical corpora, the research surveyed 14th-century manuscripts and 15th-century printed editions of The Canterbury Tales, focusing on how one example in the earliest manuscript was treated in the later editions. Specifically, the two verbs that express "preference" and the two verbs that express "obligation / necessity" were examined. The results are the following: overall the editions prefer the personal construction in a similar way as other 15th-century works, and especially the verbs of obligation / necessity have a strong tendency towards the personal construction when they take a second-person subject. This means that the transition is not uniform.
Free Research Field	人文学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	研究の基盤として、初期写本２つと15世紀刊本4つのテクスト１行ごとに比較できるパラレルテクストを作成した。これにより、１つの非人称動詞の用法が写本刊本の時代順にどのように変化したかだけでなく、刊本の中には非人称動詞の代わりに全く別の表現を使うものがあること、最も後に印刷された刊本は手本となる刊本より初期写本に近い用法を取る傾向があることも明らかになった。パラレルテクストが刊本の編集の研究にいかに有益であるかがわかった。