Diachronic Studies in English Indefinite Pronouns

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During the term of project 2005 to 2007 the author published one book and 6 articles and made four oral reports. The results of the research are summarized in the following three points.First, the author succeeded in identifying the characteristic features of the two types of distributive use of indefinite pronouns (I.e. "indefinite pronoun + one" like many one and "indefinite pronoun + a + a singular noun" like many a -), the latter of which had developed after the growth of the indefinite article a/an in the 13th century, and had come to contrast with the former type of use with respect to metrics, word-formation and information structure during about 200 years from the 15th to the 17th century.Second, the author investigated English proverbs, especially those beginning with one from Middle English to Present-day English, and showed that the meaning of one is completely dependent on its use, specifically in dependent and attributive uses one indicates fundamentally the numeral 'one', … More while in independent nominal uses it usually indicates 'person' which is convertible with 'a man', that in the proverbs beginning with 'man' most of them are accompanied by the indefinite article a, which does not mean 'a male' unless it is contrasted to 'a woman', and that in the proverbs beginning with man or men without any article accompanied it never means 'a male' unless it is contrasted to a word which indicates 'a woman'.Third, as a result of investigating the process of loss of the endings attached to indefinite pronouns compared to that of adjectives, the author was able to find the following interesting facts and findings. First, the plural ending-e in many and other pronouns is high in frequency of its use and likely to drop when used idiomatically. Second, adjectives in Mandeville's Travels often run counter to an established generalization to the effect that they bear no ending in the singular form and strong declension, otherwise-e. Third, these exceptions are not without rule but grouped into three types, each of which has both unmarked and marked forms and in attributive uses there is an established rule that marked forms of adjective cannot occupy the marked positions after their heads.As for the book and articles published by the author during the three-year term of the project the book "Word Formation of Old English" (pp. 210- 277) in English Word Formation-Present Situations and Problems of Diachronic and Synchronic Studies-is part of the results of the research the author had made during 2002-2004. Less