Faculty of foreign language studies institute of liberal arts and sciences Kanazawa University
抄録
This study clarifies how the there + be + NP + ing (T-ing construction) and there + be + NP + en (T-en construction) constructions are used in fiction. Its analysis demonstrates that both constructions render similar behaviors to the ordinary existential construction (T construction: e.g. there + be + NP + PP/Ø/AdP). First, the ratios of occurrences in narration to the total occurrences are on the same level among the three constructions. Second, although the T-ing construction is used slightly more often in the shortened form than the T construction, the ratios of the three constructions appearing in the shortened form vary little. Third, the T-ing construction and the T construction share an almost identical ratio of number disagreement between there’s and NP, but the T-en construction shows a very low ratio of number disagreement due to frequent use of uncountable nouns as NPs. These facts reject the hypothesis of this study that be in the there + be + NP + ing/en is profiled as auxiliary verb, unlike be in the T construction. They rather lend support to the validity of the hypothesis that any existential sentences take a small-clause structure of there + be + [NP + PP/ing/en/AP/pp/AdP/Ø].
there+be+NP+ing 構文とthere+be+NP+en 構文について
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2436-3464-26-1-17_YAGUCHI.pdf
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