Topology型統語観の紹介とその効用

There can be a way of thinking in which constituents of a sentence would be assigned their proper position in the meaning space of the whole sentence figuratively given a cubic structure. Such a tridimensional structure as shown in the figure is supposed as the interlingual basic structure common to Japanese and such lndo-European languages as English, German, French and Spanish etc. which belong to the Germanic and the Romance families. This is the model of the expression unit which we think fundamental and we call an athematic sentence or a "clause". The grammar of each individual language should take out the chains of words as variant maps of the solid structure underlying common to those languages. In the Global Clause Grammar, which is based on the topological view of syntax, we assume that such and such a position accommodates respectively such and such constituent(s) as follows: A : Auxiliary verb and copula (with tense) V : Verbal (infinitive and participle) S : "Surrectum" (roughly, so-called subject) Q : "Qualification" of surrectum O : "Oppositum" (roughly, direct object) C : Complement for oppositum (what describes oppositum appositionally) R : "Residual" (indispensable nominal constituent other than surrectum and oppositum) P : "Parathema" or "Peristema" (concomitant condition or circumstance: time, place, cause etc.) Applying the topological view of syntax to the following three problems selected for example, we try to explicate them elegantly: 1 . Identificational and existential sentence 2 . Active and passive voice, and ergativity 3 . Where and how to place dispensable constituents. Conclusion: 1 . There is a common base to both an identification al and an existential sentence. 2 . A common ergatival structure underlies active and passive voice. 3 . A sentence must have sufficient conditions for accommodating dispensable constituents.