ILCAA Joint Research Project

Exploration into Dynamicity of Grammar (1): Multiplicity and Distributedness in Grammar (jrp000232)

About the Project

Project term: April, 2017–March, 2020

This project examines the reality and the nature of structural diversity within a grammatical system and considers the implications of this internal multiplicity for the general theory of grammar. Grammar is commonly assumed to take shape as an integrated system of general patterns. This integrated view has been serving as a dominant metaphor in our approach to grammar. Thus, the question of contextual variation has almost never been given serious treatment in the theoretical study of the grammatical system. The observed variations have typically been considered to be superficial, peripheral, and unessential phenomena that do not have any relevance to how the system of grammar is built. This project questions this integrated view and explores an alternative view of grammar where grammar is thought to consist of multiple overlapping but separate systems. According to this view, the observed structural variations are direct reflections of multiplicity in grammar. We will explore this multiplicity in grammar by examining two different kinds of contextual variations: (1) variations with respect to major structural principles including word order and grammatical markings and (2) subregularities found in the system (i.e., patterns and regularities that are local to a particular genre or context).

Members

Coordinator

• Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)

ILCAA Staff

• Makoto MINEGISHI
• Tokusu KUREBITO

Joint Researchers

• Hayato AOI
• Takashi HAMADA
• Fumino HORIUCHI
• Atsuhiko KATO
• Shigehiro KATO
• Kumiko NAKAYAMA
• Tsuyoshi ONO
• Naoki OTANI
• Michinori SHIMOJI
• Ryoko SUZUKI
• Yasunori TAKAHASHI
• Hiroko TAKANASHI
• Wei WU
• Rika YAMASHITA
• Yu YANAGIMURA
• Noboru YOSHIOKA

Outputs

Publications:

NAKAYAMA, Toshihide, Naoki OTANI (eds.)Toward Dynamic Interaction between Cognitive Linguistics and Discourse-functional Linguistics: New Frontiers in the Usage-based Approach to Grammar. (2020-12-25, Hituzi Shobo.)
Book Info (in Japanese)

Meetings

The 8th meeting ：Report (Japanese)(575KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 1 Feb 2020 13:00–18:00
• Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Core Project “Linguistic Dynamics Science 3 (LingDy3)”

• 1. Masato YOSHIKAWA (Keio University)

  “Homo Regularis: How human obsession on regularities produces the illusion of grammar”

  2. Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)

  “How do linguistic regularities emerge?”

The 7th meeting ：Report (Japanese)(569KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 11 Jan 2020 13:00–18:00
• Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Core Project “Linguistic Dynamics Science 3 (LingDy3)”

• 1. Yasunori TAKAHASHI (ILCAA joint researcher, Kobe University)

  “How consciousness affect the way language change”

  2. Kow KURODA (Kyorin University)

  “What happens to linguistics if we take understandability (rather than grammaticality) seriously?”

The 6th meeting ：Report (Japanese)(697KB)

• Date/Time: Fri 27 Dec 2019 13:00–18:00
• Venue: Room 301, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Core Project “Linguistic Dynamics Science 3 (LingDy3)”

• 1. Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)

  “On the mechanism connecting multiple grammatical subsystems in multiple individuals”

  2. Yasuharu DEN (Chiba University)

  “Interconnection between social regularities in communicative interaction and individual cognitive knowledge”

  3. Daiji KIMURA (Kyoto University)

  “Emergence of communication without a shared code”

  4. Open discussion

  “Individual knowledge and social (shared) knowledge”

The 5th meeting

• Date/Time: Sun 10 Mar 2019 13:00–18:00
• Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Linguistic Dynamics Science 3 (LingDy3)

• Hiroko TAKANASHI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Japan Women's University)

  “Grammar, style and stance: direct and indirect indexicality of the second-person pronouns at the end of IU”

  Atsuhiko KATO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Keio University)

  “On ‘Literary style’ in Pwo-Karen”

  All members

  Open discussion

The 4th meeting

• Date/Time: Sat 9 Feb 2019 13:00–18:30
• Venue: Room 301, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Linguistic Dynamics Science 3 (LingDy3)

• Rika YAMASHITA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kanto Gakuin University)

  “Sentence-final expression ‘nanodesu’ in Japanese”

  Naoki OTANI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

  “Prepositional clause as a complement of a preposition”

  Yoshiko MATSUMOTO (Stanford University)

  “Noun-modifying clause construction and multiplicity in grammatical knowledge”

  All members

  Open discussion

The 3rd meeting

• Date/Time: Sun 9 Dec 2018 10:00–18:00
• Venue: Room 306, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Linguistic Dynamics Science 3 (LingDy3)

• Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)

  “Multiplicity in grammar and 'exceptional' structure”

  Naoki OTANI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

  “Syntactic, semantic, and discourse characteristics of the 'better off' construction in English”

  Kow KURODA (Kyorin University)

  “How do speakers react to ungrammatical sentences?”

  Shigehiro KATO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Hokkaido University)

  “Clash between structural and pragmatic rules in Japanese”

  Masato YOSHIKAWA (Keio University)

  “‘The funny this is...’: Sentence production as an optimal mixture of formulaicity and creativity”

  All members

  Open discussion

The 2nd meeting

• Date/Time: Sun 11 Feb 2018 10:30–18:00
• Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese

• Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)

  “What constitutes grammatical knowledge?”

  Kow KURODA (Kyorin University)

  “Adequate description and explanation requires optimization of the notion of grammar”

  Masato YOSHIKAWA (Keio University)

  “Grammar as a socially constructed illusion”

  Fumino HORIUCHI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Keio University)

  “The role of context in formation of word knowledge as observed in acquisition of English prepositions”

  All members

  Open discussion

The 1st meeting ：Report (Japanese)(158KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 7 Oct 2017 13:00–18:00，Sun 8 Oct 2017 10:00–13:00
• Venue: Room 405, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Linguistic Dynamics Science 3 (LingDy3)
• 7 Oct

• Toshihide NAKAYAMA (ILCAA)

  Introduction: Objectives of the project

  Hayato AOI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, ILCAA Research Associate and NINJAL)

  “Multiple Grammar model and its theoretical implications”

  Fumino HORIUCHI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Keio University)

  “Multiplicity in grammar as observed in everyday conversation in Japanese”

  All members

  Reports on variations in linguistic patterns (1)

  All members

  Open discussion: Issues raised by multiplicity in grammar

• 8 Oct

• All members

  Reports on variations in linguistic patterns (2)

  All members

  Open discussion: Grammar research that takes multiplicity into account

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