hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2025-06-28

■ #5906. 支柱語 (prop word) の「支柱」とは？ [prop_word][pos][pronoun][personal_pronoun][syntax][terminology][existential_sentence][do-periphrasis][cleft_sentence]

　My family is a large one. のような文における one のような語は支柱語 (prop_word) と呼ばれる．「支柱」という発想は，それがないと構文として立ちゆかない統語上の必須項ということだろうか．一方で，このような one は前述の可算名詞を指示こそすれ，それ自体の意味内容は空っぽといえるので，この点では「支柱」の比喩はあまり有効でないように思われる．
　言語学用語としての prop とは何だろうか．Crystal の用語辞典で prop を引いてみた．

prop (adj.) A term used in some GRAMMATICAL descriptions to refer to a meaningless ELEMENT introduced into a structure to ensure its GRAMMATICALITY, e.g. the it in it's a lovely day. Such words are also referred to as EMPTY, because they lack any SEMANTICALLY independent MEANING. SUBSTITUTE WORDS, which refer back to a previously occurring element of structure, are also often called prop words, e.g. one or do in he's found one, he does, etc.

　統語意味論的な観点からは，上記のように substitute word （代用語）と呼ぶのは分かりやすい．
　ただし，意味のない形式上の it などをも指して "prop" と呼ぶとなれば，"empty", "expletive", "dummy" などの形容詞にも近しいだろう．実際 McArthur の用語辞典によれば，"prop" の項目を引くと "dummy" へ参照を促される．その第4項目を引用する（ただし，ここでは特に one は例として挙げられてない）．

DUMMY [16c: from dumb and -y]. . . . (4) In grammar, an item that has little or no meaning but fills an obligatory position: prop it, which functions as subject with expressions of time (It's late), distance (It's a long way to Tipperary), and weather (It's raining); anticipatory it, which functions as subject (It's a pity that you're not here) or object (I find it hard to understand what's meant) when the subject or object of a clause is moved to a later position in the sentence, and is the subject in cleft sentences (It was Peter who had an accident); existential there, which functions as subject in an existential sentence (There's nobody at the door); the dummy auxiliary do, which is introduced, in the absence of any other auxiliary, to form questions (Do you know them?).

　意味論的には空疎だが統語論上は必須とされる要素，これが prop の最大公約数的な性質といってよいだろうか．one の他の特殊用法については，以下の記事も参照．

　・ 「#1815. 不定代名詞 one の用法はフランス語の影響か？」 ([2014-04-16-1])
　・ 「#5170. 3人称単数代名詞の総称的用法」 ([2023-06-23-1])

　・ Crystal, David, ed. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008.
　・ McArthur, Tom, ed. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: OUP, 1992.

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