Linguistic multi-competence in the community: the case of a Japanese plural suffix -tachi for individuation

Abstract

Abstract Applied linguists have investigated the nature of linguistic multi-competence (LMC) as a consequence of languages in contact in the minds of individuals and have observed that our first language is more amenable to change than once thought. However, LMC can manifest itself in not only an individual language user but also a linguistic community. This study explores the manifestation of LMC at the community level from historical and socio-cognitive perspectives with special focus on the use of a Japanese plural marker -tachi. It is a suffix usually attached to humans, but is frequently observed with animals and even inanimate nouns such as hon-tachi ‘books,’ which is conventionally considered unacceptable. This study analyzes over 100 -tachi cases collected from narrations and commentaries in public broadcasts. The analysis investigates the type of nouns to which -tachi is attached and the contexts where -tachi is used. The findings suggest that while retaining its original plural system, Japanese has accomplished the integration of a certain grammatical feature of English into Japanese. We argue that this innovative expressive means embedded in LMC as an integrated system in the community enables Japanese users, when necessary, to realize discrete objects, irrespective of whether they are living things or not, as individuated entities in the cognitive foreground with conceptually characteristic profiles.