認識動詞構文における「ヲ」格名詞句の文法的な 位置づけについて

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of cognitive verb constructions, with particular attention to “o” case-marked noun phrases and the properties of this “o” case. In previous theoretical research, the syntactic positioning of these “o” case noun phrases has been a primary concern, and Mihara (2022) regarded the “o” phrase as a postpositional phrase. In this paper, I acknowledge the existence of embedding structures within cognitive verb constructions and take the position that the “o” case-marked noun phrase representing the cognitive object is an element of the main clause. However, the claim that the “o” marking functions as a postposition indicating topic presentation requires further examination. To address this, the verb "omou (思う)" is treated as a three-place predicate, and I modify the sentence structure proposed by Matsuoka (1987) into the following form: “[subject] ga + [object] o + [predicate clause] + [cognitive verb].” Additionally, I conducted several tests—such as particle omission tests, noun phrase ellipsis tests, and subject movement tests in passive constructions—to confirm that the “o” case-marked phrase functions as an object within the main clause. The results revealed that these “o” case noun phrases indeed function as objects. Furthermore, I performed a double “o” case co-occurrence test to verify whether the “o” case indicating the cognitive object is an essential case. Through this test, I identified that the two occurrences of the “o” case can be categorized into a Secondary Case Particle and an Essential Case Particle, reflecting a “secondary complement - essential complement” relationship. The test confirms that the “o” case representing the cognitive object is, in fact, an Essential Case Particle marking the object.