A constructional approach to stativity in Japanese

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationship between the formal properties and a specific meaning associated with a class of Japanese sentences that have the verbal gerund and iru ‘be’ (i.e., -te iru). These sentences are characterized by the -te iru verbal morphology on a dynamic verb and a non-volitional subject that does not participate in the event denoted by the verb. The particular stative interpretation induced by these sentences cannot be attributed to the meaning of the individual lexical items. The paper argues instead that the source of the stative meaning is better explained by a constructional view, that the meaning is attributed to the construction itself.