hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2024-04-06

■ #5458. 理論により異なる主語の捉え方 [subject][terminology][semantics][syntax][logic][case][generative_grammar]

　昨日の記事「#5457. 主語をめぐる論点」 ([2024-04-05-1]) に続き，別の言語学用語辞典からも主語 (subject) の項目を覗いてみよう．Crystal の用語辞典より引用する．

subject (n.) (S, sub, SUB, Subj, SUBJ) A term used in the analysis of GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS to refer to a major CONSTITUENT of SENTENCE or CLAUSE structure, traditionally associated with the 'doer' of an action, as in The cat bit the dog. The oldest approaches make a twofold distinction in sentence analysis between subject and PREDICATE, and this is still common, though not always in this terminology; other approaches distinguish subject from a series of other elements of STRUCTURE (OBJECT, COMPLEMENT, VERB, ADVERBIAL, in particular. Linguistic analyses have emphasized the complexity involved in this notion, distinguishing, for example, the grammatical subject from the UNDERLYING or logical subject of a sentence, as in The cat was chased by the dog, where The cat is the grammatical and the dog the logical subject. Not all subjects, moreover, can be analyzed as doers of an action, as in such sentences as Dirt attracts flies and The books sold well. The definition of subjects in terms of SURFACE grammatical features (using WORD-ORDER or INFLECTIONAL criteria) is usually relatively straightforward, but the specification of their function is more complex, and has attracted much discussion (e.g. in RELATIONAL GRAMMAR). In GENERATIVE grammar, subject is sometimes defined at the NP immediately DOMINATED by S. While NP is the typical formal realization of subject, other categories can have this function, e.g. clause (S-bar), as in That oil floats on water is a fact, and PP as in Between 6 and 9 will suit me. The term is also encountered in such contexts as RAISING and the SPECIFIED-SUBJECTION CONDITION.

　昨日引用・参照した McArthur の記述と重なっている部分もあるが，今回の Crystal の記述からは，拠って立つ言語理論に応じて主語の捉え方が異なることがよく分かる．関係文法では主語の果たす機能に着目しており，生成文法ではそもそも主語という用語を常用しない．あらためて主語とは伝統文法に基づく緩い用語であり，そしてその緩さ加減が適切だからこそ広く用いられているのだということが分かる．

　・ Crystal, David, ed. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008. 295--96.

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