Theoretical and empirical studies of reference and anaphora …Toward the establishment of generative grammar as an empirical science …

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The main objective of the project has been to uncover the nature of language faculty through syntactic and semantic analysis of anaphora in natural language, mainly focusing on Japanese and English. Our ultimate goal is to propose a model of that part of language faculty which is conditioned by purely structural factors as distinct from those that are lexically or pragmatically conditioned. Drawing on a series of works by Y.Takubo and M.Saito with respect to the cognitive aspect in particular, Ueyama (2005) presents an overall picture of how the relevant modules interact with each other in various linguistic activities.A noteworthy progress was also made regarding the methodology of theoretical linguistics. Falsification, Corroboration, and CFJ (Call for Judgment) System on the Web are the prominent keywords.The progress of science is often measured from the viewpoint of quantity (i.e., how much coverage it has), and from the viewpoint of quality (i.e., how well it captures the nature of the object). The concepts falsification and corroboration play a central role in the latter aspect, as is discussed in detail in H.Hoji's most recent paper (which is included in the report).In addition, the CFJ System on the Web was brought into use during the project period. This is a newly designed system (powered by Perl) which helps linguists to examine the appropriateness of a proposed hypothesis in an empirical way. The system needs further improvement (probably by the help of psychologists and cognitive scientists), but we are proud to declare that we are finally ready to pursue linguistics as an empirical science.