Grammaticalization of Japanese Verbals

Abstract

This paper is a comprehensive study of the grammaticalization of 18 Japanese lexical verbs and adjectives to auxiliaries and further to clitics from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. Such auxiliaries follow the gerundive te form of main verbals and cliticization takes place as a result of phonetic assimilation. These two kinds of grammatical forms co-exist as layers in present day Japanese. We will first observe syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and phonological changes that have occurred in the process of the grammaticalization of these lexical forms, together with the level of persistence that has been maintained. We will then attempt to account for these changes from the viewpoint of unidirectionality principles such as generalization of semantic content and syntactic decategorialization. Particular attention is given to such syntactic phenomena as animacy restriction, transitivity, and valency of the lexical and grammatical forms.