日中両言語における人名詞の解釈に関する研究 : 指示詞の省略可能性の観点から

This study aimed to determine whether the interpretation of personal nouns and possibility of omitting demonstrative adjectives are affected by the type of predication. Both Iori (2007) and Si (2008) pointed out that in Japanese, demonstrative adjectives can be omitted when the anaphor is a common―but not an abstract―noun. In Chinese, Si (2008) found that it is not possible for demonstrative adjectives to be omitted. By contrast, in Japanese, Chen (2014b) reported that when the predicate expresses a specific event (event predication), a common noun is interpreted as a specific object and may refer to the antecedent without demonstrative adjectives. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the type of predication also affects the possibility of omitting demonstrative adjectives in Chinese. If so, there would appear to be no difference between Japanese and Chinese in this regard. The present analysis yielded the following two findings. (1) If the referent is a singular noun in Chinese, native speakers of Chinese do not tend to omit demonstrative adjectives―regardless of the type of predication. (2) If the referent is a bare Noun Phrase, the type of predication affects the possibility of omitting demonstrative adjectives, which is similar to the situation in Japanese. In the present study, it was evident that owing to the interpretation of the bare NP in Japanese, it differs in this respect from Chinese.