複合名詞の構文アプローチに関する理論的考察

Abstract

[名詞+名詞]から成る複合名詞は構成要素の意味のみには還元できない意味を含む(e.g. rice wine ‘wine made from rice’; sneaker war ‘commercial competition oversneaker’)。非構成的な意味を適切に解釈するうえで、伝統的には文脈の役割が強調されてきたが(Downing 1977, Jespersen 1942)、近年では特定のパタンに対する頻度情報の重要性も指摘されている(Hamlitsch 2020, Levin et al. 2019, Zlatev et al.2010)。複合名詞の妥当な意味記述の枠組みを探ることを目的として、本稿は使用基盤モデルや構文形態論に依拠する構文アプローチ(Booij 2010, Langacker 2008, Ryder 1994)を批判的に検討する。そして、構文アプローチは粒度の高い記述と解釈の予測性をもたらす点で他の理論(e.g. Levi 1978, Warren 1978)よりも優れている反面、構文スキーマにおける(i)意味の記載内容(ii)階層的知識の2点において検討課題が残ることを主張し、(i-ii)について考察する。

Nominal Compounds (Noun+Noun) contain meanings not totally reduced to each constituent's concept (e.g. rice wine ‘wine made from rice’ sneaker war ‘commercial competition over sneaker’). In addition to the role of contextual inference (Downing 1977, Jespersen 1942), in recent years, frequency is also considered to be a significant factor in the successful interpretation of non-compositional meanings (Hamlitsch 2020, Levin et al. 2019, Zlatev et al. 2010). In search of an appropriate descriptive framework, this paper offers a critical review of the constructional approach based on the Usage- Based Model (Langacker 1987, 2008, Ryder 1994) and Construction Morphology (Booij 2010). While this approach has the advantage of providing descriptive granularity and meaning predictability over other theories (e.g. Levi 1978, Warren 1978), there remain two questions concerning constructional schemas: one is the aspects of the encyclopedic knowledge evoked by constituents, and the other is the hierarchical structure represented in the constructional network.