著者

中山 仁

出版者

日本英語表現学会

雑誌

英語表現研究 (ISSN:09104275)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.107-123, 2021-06-01 (Released:2021-09-01)

参考文献数

10

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This paper is concerned with nonrestrictive relative which-clauses that occur as unembedded dependent clauses, such as Which is a good thing. , Which reminds me..., etc. Although nonrestrictive which-clauses are generally regarded as more frequent in written English compared with speech, the unembedded type of which-clauses (henceforth, Which-clauses), literally independent of and separated from the preceding main clauses, are especially common in conversation and sometimes found in dialogue in fiction and very informal news texts (Biber et al. 1999). Biber et al. (1999) points out that unembedded dependent clauses are connected with the evolving nature of conversation and that Which-clauses are allowed because of the relative link that signals a close connection to the immediately preceding text. However, in order to clarify the whole picture of the occurrence of Which-clauses, further investigation is needed in terms of the general characteristics of spoken English on the one hand and the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of Which-clauses themselves on the other. In the course of discussion, it becomes clear that the speaker’s real-time information processing during conversation, as well as certain functional and pragmatic properties of Which-clauses, is the key to finding out why they occur in informal English.

著者

松田 正貴

出版者

日本英語表現学会

雑誌

英語表現研究 (ISSN:09104275)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.57-86, 2021

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<p>Agatha Christie (1890-1976) has long been axiomatically referred to as "the mistress of mystery," but it is not widely known that this world-famous author was also a poet. She had sent her poems to <i>The Poetry Review,</i> some of which had been printed in the magazine before she made her debut as a mystery writer with her first novel <i>The Mysterious Affair at Styles</i> (1920). Furthermore, she had a collection of poems—<i>The Road of Dreams</i> (1925)—published through a presumably private-funded way five years after she got into the storytelling business. This means that her creative impetus in her early years was basically for poetry. Then, what on earth brought Christie, who had started writing poems during her adolescence, to the genre of detective novels? How did poetry come to terms with mystery in her case? In this paper I would like to elucidate these issues by examining Christie's early imaginative visions represented in her poems and to reveal some connection between her poetry and stories. My main focus is, above all, on her attachment to the characters in pantomimes, such as Harlequin, Columbine, and Pierrot, which is clearly seen in her poem 'A Masque from Italy' that might be a prototype of her later narratives.</p>

著者

立本 秀洋

出版者

日本英語表現学会

雑誌

英語表現研究 (ISSN:09104275)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.36, pp.49-63, 2019-06-01 (Released:2019-11-11)

参考文献数

10

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Language is indispensable part of the philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin, who is known for his explanation of what underlies Dostoevskii’s and Rabelais’ ways of composing their works. He criticizes the theories on language proposed by Saussure and Vossler, saying that one should see language as being intertwined with the contexts where it is used. Language is neither a concrete system nor a medium in which one can see their thoughts expressing themselves. In Bakhtin’s view, language does not exist unless someone uses it, but no one can use it at their own will because there exist form and rules that restrict one’s free use of it. Nevertheless, one does not need to be conscious of form when speaking in their mother tongue, so it can be said that in mother tongue, language is automatic to some extent. In this sense, “a foreign language” should be considered not only as a language spoken by people in a foreign country but also as a language that does not grant one the automatic use. It is in learning foreign languages that one has to encounter form and rules of language. That is where one is required to be active and responsible in exercising their language ability.