Parameters in Tense: A Comparative Syntax and Grammar Acquisition

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370515
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Nanzan University
• Principal Investigator: Murasugi Keiko (斎藤恵子) 南山大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (00239518)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: tense / truncation / ATOM / Child Language / Root Infinitives / Lableing / Generative Grammar / Mimetics

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The project investigated the syntactic properties of tense in both Adult and Child languages in Japanese and other languages. We focussed on the Root Infinitive stage that very young children speaking European languages such as Dutch, French, and German produce at around age 2, and proposed, based on the descriptive and theoretidal study, that there is a Root Infinitive Analogue stage in Japanese and some Asian languages such as Chinese, Hindi,and Korean. We argued that the mimetics and "Verb stem + ta" form are the surrogate infinitive formｓ in Japanese and those early verbs are associated with the properties specifically found in European Root Infinitives. Furthermore, we analyzed the intermediate stage of language acquisition under the Minimalist theory, and proposed that the Root Infinitive Stage is the stage where the merge, part of Universal Gramamr, is availble, though labeling is still in undercostruction.

Free Research Field

心理言語学