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ILCAA Joint Research Project

Investigation into the Possibilities and Implications of a Usage-based Approach to Grammar (jrp000196)

Investigation into the Possibilities and Implications of a Usage-based Approach to Grammar

Keywords

  • usage-based grammar
  • syntax
  • complex systems
  • emergence

Areas

  • non-regional

Website

https://sites.google.com/site/ubagramen/

About the Project

Project term: April, 2013–March, 2016

This project aims to build a new descriptive and theoretical research framework that effectively captures the dynamicity of linguistic system.
In traditional descriptive and theoretical linguistic research, linguistic system (grammar) as a system of knowledge has been assumed to be independent of how language is used in actual discourse. As a result, grammar has been analyzed and modeled without much of attention to the reality of language use. Recently, however, studies especially those in the area of language change show that language use in fact shapes grammatical patterns (supposedly a reflection of grammatical knowledge), and validity of separating linguistic system from language use has been questioned.
In spoken discourse, the choice of linguistic forms is affected not only by their grammatical makeup but also by pragmatic and interactional factors. The patterns and regularities observed there do not necessarily follow expectations held in traditional research: the patterns and regularities in spoken discourse are commonly much smaller scale or fragmentary; and spoken discourse contains patterns that cannot be explained on the basis of grammatical structure.
In this project, we will explore an alternative research framework that can account for the synchronic patterns and the dynamic aspects of linguistic structure as an integral whole.

Toshihide NAKAYAMA, Project Coordinator (ILCAA)

Members

Coordinator

  • Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)

ILCAA Staff

  • Asako SHIOHARA
  • Hideo SAWADA
  • Honoré WATANABE

Joint Researchers

  • Atsuhiko KATO
  • Hajime OSHIMA
  • Hayato AOI
  • Iku NAGASAKI
  • Kumiko NAKAYAMA
  • Michinori SHIMOJI
  • Noboru YOSHIOKA
  • Ryoko SUZUKI
  • Sandra THOMPSON
  • Shigehiro KATO
  • Tomoko TATSUMI
  • Toshio OHORI
  • Tsuyoshi ONO
  • Yasunori TAKAHASHI
  • Yoshiki NISHIMURA
  • Yu YANAGIMURA

Outputs

Meetings

The 8th meeting

  • Date/Time: 22 March 2016 (Tue.) 13:00‐18:00, 23 March 2016 (Wed.) 10:00‐15:00
  • Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
  • Language: Japanese
  • 22 March
  • Atsuhiko KATO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Osaka University)
    Yasunori TAKAHASHI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kobe University)
  • 23 March
  • Hayato AOI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, National Institute for Japanese Langage and Linguistics / JSPS Research Fellow)
    All members
    Discussion

The 7th meeting

  • Date/Time: 31 January 2016 (Sun.) 13:00‐18:30
  • Venue: Room 306, ILCAA
  • Language: Japanese
  • Michinori SHIMOJI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kyushu University)
    TBA
    Shigehiro KATO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Hokkaido University)
    “Competition among morphosyntactic rules”
    All members
    Discussion on descriptive-theoretical issues related to the dynamic characteristics of grammar

The 6th meeting

  • Date/Time: 6 December 2015 (Sun.) 12:30‐18:00
  • Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
  • Language: Japanese
  • Michinori SHIMOJI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kyushu University)
    TBA
    Noboru YOSHIOKA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, National Museum of Ethnology)
    TBA
    All members
    Discussion on descriptive-theoretical issues related to the dynamic characteristics of grammar

The 5th meeting

  • Date/Time: 19 March 2015 (Thu.) 10:30-18:00
  • Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
  • Language: Japanese
  • Michinori SHIMOJI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kyushu University)
    “Distributional change in TO in Fukuoka dialect of Japanese: A usage-based account”
    All members
    Discussion on descriptive-theoretical issues related to the dynamic characteristics of grammar

The 4th meeting

  • Date/Time: 8 February 2015 (Sun.) 10:30-17:00
  • Venue: Room 306, ILCAA
  • Language: Japanese
  • Yasunori TAKAHASHI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kobe University)
    “Frequency of occurance and phonetic reduction: a case study from Chinese”
    Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)
    “Issues regarding the unit of analysis and description in linguistics”
    Yu Yanagimura (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Tokyo College of Medico-pharmacotechnology)
    “Speech perception based on the exemplar model”
    All members
    Discussion on descriptive-theoretical issues related to the dynamic characteristics of grammar

The 3rd meeting

  • International workshop on Tight and Loose Grammar
  • Date/Time: 29 November 2014 (Sat.) 10:00-18:00, 30 November 2014 (Sun.) 13:00-18:00
  • Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
  • Language: English
  • 29 November
  • Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)
    “An exploration of grammatical tightness: some observations from Nuuchahnulth narrative data”
    Robert ENGLEBRETSON (Rice University)
    “Tight and Loose Resonance in Social Coordination: Clause-Final ‘Too’ and ‘Either’ in American English Conversation”
    Abstract (English) (39KB)
    Anna VATANEN (University of Helsinki)
    “Turn transitions, projectability and “tight” grammatical constructions”
    Abstract (English) (31KB)
    Ryoko SUZUKI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Keio Universty) & Sandra A. THOMPSON (ILCAA Joint Researcher, University of California, Santa Barbara)
    “Prosody, grammar, and clause combining: so in American English”
    Abstract (English) (21KB)
    Mari NIKONEN (University of Helsinki)
    “Prosodic Features of Interrogative Possessive Constructions in Native and Non-native Finnish”
    Abstract (English) (13KB)
    Discussion
  • 30 November
  • Michael EWING (University of Melbourne)
    “Predicate Plus: A usage-based conceptualisation of grammatical structure in Indonesian Conversation”
    Päivi HAKAMÄKI and Karita SUOMALAINEN (University of Helsinki)
    “The clause and its role as an interactional unit in Finnish conversations – perspectives on tightness and looseness”
    Abstract (English) (15KB)
    Marja-Liisa HELASVUO (University of Turku), Ritva LAURY (University of Helsinki), and Mari NIKONEN (University of Turku)
    “Formulaicity and prosodic nature of ‘remember’ and ‘know’ in Finnish conversation”
    Discussion

The 2nd meeting

  • Date/Time: 8 March 2014 (Sat.) 10:30-18:00
  • Venue: Room 301 , ILCAA
  • Language: Japanese
  • Michinori SHIMOJI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kyushu University)
    “Limitation of paradigm-based grammatical description”
    Discussion
    “Position of morphosyntactic paradigms in a grammatical system”
    All members
    Business meeting

The 1st meeting

  • Date/Time: 27 April 2013 (Sat.) 12:00-18:00
  • Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
  • All members
    Presentation on the goals and plans of the project
    All members
    Discussion on key readings
    All members
    Discussion on descriptive-theoretical issues related to the dynamic characteristics of grammar

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