Markedness in the Modern Linguistic Theory : A Study in Syntax and Acquisition

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Markedness has been one of the consistent topics in the research of linguistics. The purpose of this research project was to investigate the mechanism for markedness in human language, comparing, in particular, syntax and acquisition of complex Noun Phrases and complex Predicates in English and Japanese. First, based on detailed research on the structure of relative clauses and the new corpus I created with Tomoko Hashimoto, I proposed that there are TP-relative-clause-languages and CP relative-clause languages, and CP is the unmarked structure as Murasugi (1991) disrussed. This proposal allows us to formulate the acquisition theory based on the markedness theory, and enables us to account for the complex pattern of the well-known overgeneration phenomena in Japanese acquisition.Further, I examined the intermediate stages widely reported in the acquisition of complex predicates. I investigated the erroneous forms children make in the acquisition of transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, and causatives under the VP shell analysis. Based on the detailed analysis of CHILDES database and the data corpus created by Tomoko Hashimoto and myselt I presented a hypothesis that Japanese-speaking children initially set the parameter value that the small vis mophologically null (like vin English transitive-& intransitive-verb pass). Finally, based on the research on the other types of complex predicates such as potentials, I argued that the proposed analysis would be extended to the analysis of the errors hind in the acquisition stages of the complex predicates in general. This research is currently being developed into the next major project that I plan to undertake.