Diachrony, Synchrony, and Typology of Tense and Aspect in Old Japanese

Diachrony, Synchrony, and Typology of Tense and Aspect in Old Japanese PDF

Author: Kazuha Watanabe

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-03-23

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1793614431

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Diachrony, Synchrony, and Typology of Tense and Aspect in Old Japanese reconstructs the synchronic system of tense and aspect in Old Japanese, which until now had not been examined using the tools of contemporary linguistic theory. Kazuha Watanabe analyzes syntactic distribution of the temporal suffixes in the Man'yōshū, an eighth-century poetry collection, and compares the results with data from well-attested languages. The author then integrates the semantic property of each suffix into the overall synchronic tense-aspect system of Old Japanese. Watanabe further compares the reconstructed system with the distributions of the same suffixes in Early Modern Japanese using Genji Monogatari, an eleventh-century novel, in order to provide further support for the synchronic analysis of Old Japanese. This approach is fundamentally different from traditional analyses, which identify the meanings of the temporal suffixes based on contextual information. In addition, previous analyses have produced a uniform analysis covering the entire 700-year period from Old to Early Modern Japanese. Instead, Watanabe proposes that Old Japanese had a temporal system distinct from the later period.

Diachrony of Personal Pronouns in Japanese

Diachrony of Personal Pronouns in Japanese PDF

Author: Osamu Ishiyama

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2019-01-15

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 9027262810

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Personal pronouns in Japanese form a heterogeneous category. This book investigates their historical development from a functional perspective. It shows that while nouns give rise to personal pronouns through semanticization of pragmatic inferences, the use of non-nominal forms such as demonstratives and reflexives for person referents can be resolved within their original functions, offering little reason to treat them as personal pronouns. The cross-linguistic investigation into the common sources of personal pronouns reveals that the development of personal pronouns from nouns is largely consistent with grammaticalization, but that of forms of non-nominal origins requires separate mechanisms such as spatial/empathetic perspectives and displacement of semantic features for politeness, showing that a one-size-fits-all approach to diachrony of personal pronouns is not sufficient. This book will be of special interest to researchers and students in historical linguistics, pragmatics, and Japanese linguistics, who take a functional view of language.

The Old Japanese Complement System

The Old Japanese Complement System PDF

Author: Janick Wrona

Publisher: Global Oriental

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 900421318X

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The present study is the first large-scale investigation of the syntax of Old Japanese (mainly eighth-century Japanese). It gives a detailed account of complement clauses and related constructions in Old Japanese, based on an exhaustive investigation of the extant text corpus.

Proto-Japanese

Proto-Japanese PDF

Author: Bjarke Frellesvig

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9789027248091

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Proto-Japanese is the reconstructed language stage from which all later varieties of Japanese, including Ryukyuan, descend. It has been studied both as an end in itself (as the genetic code of the Japanese language) and as part of endeavors to clarify the genetic affiliation of Japanese. Based on the state of the field, especially as represented in Samuel E. Martin's seminal work The Japanese Language Through Time (1987), this volume singles out key areas in the reconstruction of proto-Japanese where salient progress has been or promises to be made since Martin. Contributions were invited from scholars working on the following areas: segmental phonology, use of dialect evidence, accent, morphology, and syntax. While the book first of all presents new research which advances our understanding of proto-Japanese, it also gives an overview over the state of the art in the field and its main issues.

Diachrony of Verb Morphology

Diachrony of Verb Morphology PDF

Author: Martine Robbeets

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-07-24

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 3110400111

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This book deals with shared verb morphology in Japanese and other languages that have been identified as Transeurasian (traditionally: “Altaic”) in previous research. It analyzes shared etymologies and reconstructed grammaticalizations with the goal to provide evidence for the genealogical relatedness of these languages.

The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect

The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect PDF

Author: Robert I. Binnick

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-06-14

Total Pages: 1128

ISBN-13: 0195381971

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This Handbook is a comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible guide to the topics and theories that current form the front line of research into tense, aspect, and related areas.

Modality-aspect Interfaces

Modality-aspect Interfaces PDF

Author: Werner Abraham

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 9027229929

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The main topics pursued in this volume are based on empirical insights derived from Germanic: logical and typological dispositions about aspect-modality links. These are probed in a variety of non-related languages. The logically establishable links are the following: Modal verbs are aspect sensitive in the selection of their infinitival complements – embedded infinitival perfectivity implies root modal reading, whereas embedded infinitival imperfectivity triggers epistemic readings. However, in marked contexts such as negated ones, the aspectual affinities of modal verbs are neutralized or even subject to markedness inversion. All of this suggests that languages that do not, or only partially, bestow upon full modal verb paradigms seek to express modal variations in terms of their aspect oppositions. This typological tenet is investigated in a variety of languages from Indo-European (German, Slavic, Armenian), African, Asian, Amerindian, and Creoles. Seeming deviations and idiosyncrasies in the interaction between aspect and modality turn out to be highly rule-based.

Synchrony and Diachrony of Okinawan Kakari Musubi in Comparative Perspective with Premodern Japanese

Synchrony and Diachrony of Okinawan Kakari Musubi in Comparative Perspective with Premodern Japanese PDF

Author: Rumiko Shinzato

Publisher: Global Oriental

Published: 2013-05-29

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 900421903X

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Rumiko Shinzato and Leon A. Serafim bring a new dimension to kakari musubi (a type of focus construction, henceforth KM) research, incorporating Japanese and Western linguistic theories, and synthesizing Okinawan and Japanese scholarship. Specifically, they analyze still-extant Okinawan KM in comparative perspective with its now extinct Japanese counterpart, while also offering reconstructed Proto-Japonic forms. Major hypotheses on the origins and demise of KM with insight from Okinawan are also evaluated. In addition, viewing KM as consisting of kakari particle + nominalized musubi predicate, they compare KM with its structural analogs, such as (1) Modern Japanese no-da, (2) its corollary in Japanese Western Periphery dialects, and (3) English it-clefts. Finally, the authors apply iconicity-based analyses and grammaticalization theory, interpreting correspondences between deictic-origin particles, which are shared, their epistemically unique musubi forms, and their respective functions.