Past Core Project: Linguistic Dynamics Science Researchs
Website: https://lingdy.aa-ken.jp/en/
Term: 2010.4〜2015.3
Leader: Toshihide NAKAYAMA
Member: Tokusu KUREBITO, Hideo SAWADA, Asako SHIOHARA, Izumi HOSHI,
Honoré WATANABE, Yasuhiro YAMAKOSHI, Norikazu KOGURA
Summary
The goal of this project is to advance research on the nature of structural diversity among human languages and on the complex dynamics that shape the linguistic structure.
Diversity and dynamics are aspects that have been significantly underestimated, or ignored, in mainstream theoretical linguistic studies.
Traditionally, languages have been assumed to share a large part of the basic structure as Universal Grammar. However, a gradually increasing number of descriptive grammars on under-documented languages suggest that structural variation among human language is much deeper and more complex than we ever expected.
Language as a system has generally been considered to be autonomous. That is, the properties of the linguistic system are independent of external functional forces, including socio-cultural, historical, and pragmatic forces. Such a view has begun to be questioned recently in the research on language change and on use of grammar within discourse.
If we take the results of descriptive and usage-based research seriously, we need to reevaluate and reformulate the traditional theoretical framework. This project aspires to build a new, realistic theoretical framework for capturing the nature of human language.
This project is run in coordination with the Linguistic Dynamics Science Project 2 (LingDy2).
Related Projects
- ILCAA Joint Research Project “Constructing a research network for documenting minority languages in and around Indonesia (jrp000201)”
- ILCAA Joint Research Project “Assessing Micro Level Linkages between Humans, Livestock, and the Environment in Amdo, Tibet: The Outgrowth of the Compilationof an Ethnographic Dictionary of Nomadic Vocabulary (jrp000199)”
- ILCAA Joint Research Project “Investigation into the Possibilities and Implications of a Usage-based Approach to Grammar (jrp000196)”
- ILCAA Joint Research Project “Cross-linguistic Perspective on the Information Structure of the Austronesian Languages (jrp000194)”
- ILCAA Joint Research Project “Cross-linguistic Research on “Verbals” (jrp000192)”
- ILCAA Joint Research Project “A Crosslinguistic Study of Nominalizer-final Constructions: The ‘Cogitation Process’ Approach (jrp000191)”
- Joint Research Project “Cross-Linguistic Studies on Clause Combining”
- Joint Research Project “Comparative Study on the Languages of the North from Typological Perspective”
- Joint Research Project “Descriptive Studies of Indonesian Languages; their variety and similarity”
- Joint Research Project “A Study of Variability in Deictic Expressions”
- Joint Research Project “Reconstructing Grammatical Phenomena from the Viewpoint of Tibeto-Burman Languages - Stage 2 : Characterization and Classification of Sentences”
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