Abstract
There is a group of postpositions formed by case particles and chūshi forms (non-finite ”-te” forms or ”ren'yō” forms of verbs) in Japanese. The function of these postpositions is similar to the particles in Japanese. Both postpositions ”N ni-watatte” and ”N1 kara N2 ni-watatte” consist of chūshi forms of the verb ”wataru”, which indicate the relevant location, time period and range of an event in a sentence. This article focuses on the explanation of the transformation from the verb ”wataru” to the postposition through the concepts of Grammaticalization and Diachronic. The article presents: 1. The formation of postpositions is due to ”the extension of the physics, the time, and the abstract concepts” and ”the psychological process” of the verb; 2. With the changes of the meanings of reanalysis arisen out of the context with different interpretations and from the verb ”wataru” to postposition caused by metaphor, the concepts of postposition have formed at the period of Meiji to Pre-Second World War; 3. the polysemy and two forms of postpositions come from the polysemy and argument structure of the verb ”wataru” itself.
Published Version
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