How a Pragmatic Factor Affects the Appearance of Adjuncts

This research is concerned with English middle constructions (henceforth, English middles), which is exemplified by sentences such as "This vase breaks easily". English middles are usually accompanied by for-phrases such as "This book reads easily for Mary". For-phrases in English middles have been treated in linguistic literature; however, the literature has not clarified when and how native speakers of English judge contexts as to where they include the for-phrases to English middles. The aims of this research are: i) to elucidate a syntactic property of for-phrases in English middles, and ii) to claim that the property of the for-phrase relates to a pragmatic condition when native speakers of English mention the phrase in English middles. This research also considers an analogous phrase in Japanese known as "nitotte-phrases" in an attempt to provide an adequate and universal explanation for the utterances of adjuncts.

Autorentext

BA (English Language and Literature), University of the Sacred Heart, JapanMA (Linguistics), University of Tsukuba, JapanMA (English Language Teaching), University of Reading, UKLecturer of English in International University of Health and Welfare