hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2023-07-06

■ #5183. なぜ「文法の謎」があるのか？ [sobokunagimon][grammar]

　Calude and Bauer による Mysteries of English Grammar: A Guide to Complexities of the English Language という本の序章に，"Why are there grammatical mysteries?" という1節がある．言語学者の観点からみて「文法の謎」には4種類のあり方が認められるという．
(7--8)

　・ We don't know what is going on; perhaps we are unable to determine any regular pattern --- things are messy; perhaps we can see some regularities, but do not understand what drives the patterns we find; perhaps we just do not yet know what the relevant patterns are. If there are genuinely no patterns, the system is presumably unknowable, so this is a situation we do not expect to f ind, and do not want to find. In such cases, we must try to find something that makes it in principle possible to learn the grammar. There is a big difference between the unknown and the unknowable.
　・ We know what is going on, but it does not seem to be predictable. This might be because speakers can manipulate the patterns in subtle ways that we cannot fully discern.
　・ We know what is going on, but we do not know how the mind determines what will actually be said.
　・ We know more or less what is going on, but we do not know how to successfully capture the patterns we see within a neat theoretical framework (a grammatical model).

　それぞれにタイトルをつけるとすれば，(1) まったく手をつけられない謎，(2) 予測不可能という意味での謎，(3) 心の働きに関する謎，(4) 理論的にうまく説明できないという意味での謎，となろうか．

　・ Calude, Andreea S. and Laurie Bauer. Mysteries of English Grammar: A Guide to Complexities of the English Language. Abingdon: Routledge, 2022.

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