大母音推移 (gvs) の研究は,Jespersen が1909年にこの用語を導入して以来,110年もの間,英語史や音韻論の研究者を魅了してきた.長い研究史のなかでも,この40年ほどは,この変化が本当に「大」であるのか,そして「推移」であるのかという本質的な問題に注目が集まってきた.その過程で GVS の様々な側面が議論されてきたが,特に重要な論題を整理すると5点にまとめられるという.Lass と Stockwell and Minkova を参照した Krug (242--43) より,その5点を示そう.
(i) Inception: where in the vowel space did the series of change begin?
(ii) Order: what is the chronology of individual and overlapping changes?
(iii) Structural coherence: are we dealing with interdependent changes forming a unitary overarching change or with local and independent changes?
(iv) Mergers: is the assumption of non-merger, i.e. preservation of phonemic contrasts, viable for language change in general and met in the specific changes of the GVS?
(v) Dialects: how do we deal with dialects which did not undergo the same changes as southern English or in which the changes proceeded in a different order?
この5点について丁寧に論じているのが,McMahon である.McMahon は,個々の問題に対して単純に答えを出すことはできないとしながらも,従来の「大母音推移」の呼称は妥当なのではないかと結論している.
・ Jespersen, Otto. A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part 1. Sounds and Spellings. London: Allen and Unwin, 1909.
・ Krug, Manfred. "The Great Vowel Shift." Chapter 14 of The History of English. 4th vol. Early Modern English. Ed. Laurel J. Brinton and Alexander Bergs. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2017. 241--66.
・ Lass, Roger. "Rules, Metarules and the Shape of the Great Vowel Shift". English Phonology and Phonological Theory: Synchronic and Diachronic Studies. Ed. Roger Lass. Cambridge: CUP, 1976. 51--102.
・ Stockwell, Robert and Donka Minkova. "The English Vowel Shift: Problems of Coherence and Explanation." Luick Revisited. Ed. Dieter Kastovsky, Gero Bauer, and Jacek Fisiak. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1988. 355--94.
・ McMahon, April. "Restructuring Renaissance English." The Oxford History of English. Ed. Lynda Mugglestone. Oxford: OUP, 147--77.
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