Middle Japanese Research Articles

In Defence of the Traditional Model of the Accent System of Middle Japanese

The present article seeks to review the literature on the historical development of the Japanese accentual system. Whilst some merits of the alternative account of Ramsey and de Boer are recognized, the traditional model of Middle Japanese pitch-accent is defended, and a rebuttal of the arguments against it provided. The traditional model is integrated and corroborated by cross-linguistic and phonation-related arguments, with an eye towards philological evidence. It is concluded that, for the present at least, the evidence in favour of the traditional account of Middle Japanese tonogenesis is more robust and more persuasive.

Reconstruction of Ryukyuan tone classes of Middle Japanese Class 2.4 and 2.5 nouns

Abstract It is generally accepted that of the five tone classes reconstructed for disyllabic nouns in Middle Japanese (MJ), Classes 2.4 and 2.5 exhibit a split correspondence with proto-Ryukyuan (pR) tone Classes B and C. This split correspondence is of tremendous importance for the reconstruction of the proto-Japonic (pJ) tone system, because, in the absence of a conditioning factor accounting for the split, it has led to the reconstruction of additional tone classes at the pJ level. However, of the approximately 100 nouns belonging to these classes, the tone class of only half of them has been reconstructed for pR. Before embarking on the reconstruction of the pJ tone system, we must therefore first reconstruct the pR tone class of the nouns belonging to MJ Classes 2.4 and 2.5. This study provides a reconstruction of the tone classes in pR for 75 cognates using the latest comparative data of Northern and Southern Ryukyuan dialects. The results confirmed the existence of a split correspondence, where Class 2.4 and 2.5 nouns are found to be roughly split in half between pR Classes B and C, demonstrating that it is not a merely sporadic irregularity.

Literary forms and semantic representations of focus

Fabb (2004) made a distinction between linguistic forms and literary forms. Linguistic forms hold of a text by virtue of being generated by a linguistic representation of the text, while literary forms hold of a text by virtue of being the content of thought about the text. The present article discusses whether the observed emphatic construction in Old Japanese texts is a linguistic form or implied literary form. The emphatic construction is [p-koso q-e], concordance of the emphatic particle koso with the sentence ending form -e (conjunctive subordinator), which is found primarily in literary contexts. Ohno (1993) argued that koso -e shifted its uses over the period of Old to Early Middle Japanese. The process of shift involves three stages: i) the contrastive uses, ii) the concessive uses, and iii) the simple emphatic uses. In Ohno’s analysis, the shift from (i) to (ii) is non-distinctive, but (ii) is aesthetically more complex. I argue that the shift of koso -e from (i) to (ii) is a semantic change from literal form to linguistic form, and that linguistic form may appear less distinct due to the literary form associated with the emphatic construction.

A Study of Quotative Phrases -to Equivalent to Indirect Questions in Early Middle Japanese

A Study of Quotative Phrases <i>-to</i> Equivalent to Indirect Questions in Early Middle Japanese

受身・可能とその周辺構文によるヴォイス体系の対照言語学的考察:――古代日本語と現代スペイン語――

受身・可能とその周辺構文によるヴォイス体系の対照言語学的考察:――古代日本語と現代スペイン語――

Altaicization and De-Altaicization of Japonic and Koreanic

Abstract This article discusses 40 grammatical features in Japonic and Koreanic in relation to their neighbouring languages in Northeast Asia. The data comprise 66 modern language varieties of 13 different linguistic affinities, and 12 historical languages (including Old and Middle Japanese and Old and Middle Korean). The results generated from a computational phylogenetic tool show a significant distance in the typological profiles of three main clades: Northeast Asian, Japonic-Koreanic, and Sinitic spheres. Typologically, the Japonic and Koreanic languages form a common grammatical type by sharing up to 26/40 features. By tracing their attestation in the historical languages we can see that the converged grammars are likely to be results of typological Altaicization and de-Altaicization. The combination of linguistic and historical evidence points to a chronology in which Japonic and Koreanic had mutually converged by Altaicization and de-Altaicization, respectively, during the 1st millennium BC and AD before eventually diverging in the 2nd millennium AD.

Marking Routes of Motion Verbs and Areas of Motion in Early Middle Japanese Sentences

Marking Routes of Motion Verbs and Areas of Motion in Early Middle Japanese Sentences

サ(sa)행 요음 : 개요음과 합요음의 경계

サ(sa)행 요음 : 개요음과 합요음의 경계

The Interjectional Usage of Adverbs in the Middle and Early Modern Japanese -Focusing on affirmative response utterances-

The Interjectional Usage of Adverbs in the Middle and Early Modern Japanese -Focusing on affirmative response utterances-

Honorific Forms of Compound Verbs in Early Middle Japanese

Honorific Forms of Compound Verbs in Early Middle Japanese

On Middle Construction in Japanese

This study uncovers Japanese middle constructions based on the approach of “distributed morphology”. The findings reveal that adjunct is obligatory in Japanese middles. Two types of grammatical elements contribute to the adjunct: suffix and adverbs. The suffix yasui corresponds to English “able”. The case of the subject must be nominative, i.e., が. Once verbs are attached by the suffix yasui, their part of speech transits from verb into adjective. The new lexicon predicates an inherent property of the subject. Regarding middles with adjuncts rendered by adverbs, two subtypes are confirmed: the na-adjective formed adverb 簡単に kantan ni, and the i-adjective formed adverb よく yoku. The former is produced by the na-adjective 簡単 with the copular に. The latter is formed by the i-adjective よい with the predicate く ku. The mechanisms of the constructions rendered by the two are similar. Furthermore, unlike English middles, where non change-of-state verbs are ruled out, there is no distinct lexical category of middle verb Japanese. Rather, six groups of verbs are compatible: (a) motion verbs; (b) change-of-state verbs; (c) action verbs; (d) perception verbs; (e) stative verbs; and (f) accomplishment verbs. Crucially, such generosity does not result from the adjuncts. It is the “potential form” of verbs that enables psychological and perception verbs to be licensed in Japanese middles.

On Semantic Changes(Ⅰ) of the Repetitive Onomatopée with the alternation of hara and horo - With a Focus on Morphological and Semantic Changes of it Uses in the Ancient through Middle Japanese

This diachronically deals with semantic changes of the repetitive onomatopée with the alternation of hara and horo in the Ancient through Middle Japanese. In the Ancient Japanese, the adjectival base hara was productively derivational as shown in the alternation of hara and horo. Since the late 8th century, morphologically and semantically diverse forms have been derived from hara, whose core meaning was assumed to be san (to scatter). During its derivational process, its auditory sense became a fossilized form in the Middle Japanese.BR hara originally depicted ‘a situation in which some things are scattered’, which was semantically extended to ‘a motion of something falling off or apart’ and further to ‘a motion of a lump breaking into pieces’, which was again extended to ‘an image of something not controlled’ in the Middle Japanese. And in the Middle Japanese, the alternation of voiceless and voiced consonants shows their respective distinctive characteristics in the auditory aspect, but not yet in the visional aspect. Unlike the derivational meanings of hara, the suffix –ri suggests a different image of ‘people behaving frivolously.’

Particle Kashi in Early Middle Japanese

Particle <i>Kashi</i> in Early Middle Japanese

KOBAYASHI Kenji: Chūsei Goi Goshi Ronkō (Studies in Historical Lexicology of Middle Japanese: Synonyms and Grammatical Forms)

KOBAYASHI Kenji: <i>Chūsei Goi Goshi Ronkō</i> (Studies in Historical Lexicology of Middle Japanese: Synonyms and Grammatical Forms)

A Longitudinal Study of Dietary Supplement Use in Community-living Middle Age and Elderly Japanese.

A Longitudinal Study of Dietary Supplement Use in Community-living Middle Age and Elderly Japanese.

Deriving and Interpreting Ka(karimusubi) in Premodern Japanese

This paper provides a new syntax and semantics for kakarimusubi (KM), a focus construction prominent in the grammar of Old Japanese (OJ) and Early Middle (Classical) Japanese (CJ), which diachronically developed into the interrogative construction in Modern Japanese (MdJ) headed by the ka particle. Adopting Chierchia &amp; Caponigro’s (2013) novel analysis of Free Relatives (FRs) as embedded interrogatives, an FR-based analysis of KM is proposed so as to obtain a compositional semantic analysis of this focus construction as well as an account of the adnominal marking of the presuppositional musubi component of this grammatical construction.

Deriving and Interpreting Ka(karimusubi) in Premodern Japanese

This paper provides a new syntax and semantics for kakarimusubi (KM), a focus construction prominent in the grammar of Old Japanese (OJ) and Early Middle (Classical) Japanese (CJ), which diachronically developed into the interrogative construction in Modern Japanese (MdJ) headed by the ka particle. Adopting Chierchia &amp; Caponigro’s (2013) novel analysis of Free Relatives (FRs) as embedded interrogatives, an FR-based analysis of KM is proposed so as to obtain a compositional semantic analysis of this focus construction as well as an account of the adnominal marking of the presuppositional musubi component of this grammatical construction.

Semantic properties of the so-called past tense morpheme in Late Late Middle Japanese

This article, which provides the very first formal semantic analysis of Late Late Middle Japanese (LLMJ) data, discusses adjectival (non-preterit) interpretations of the so-called past tense morpheme -ta in LLMJ and contemporary New Japanese (cNJ), accounting for their similarities and differences. We explain the historical semantic change of -ta and its predecessors as a gradual change from a resultative to a perfect and then to a preterit, in compliance with Maslov’s (in: Nedjalkov (ed.) Typology of resultative constructions, 1988) hypothesis. Adjectival -ta is restricted to prenominal modifier cases in cNJ, but is found in both prenominal and matrix clause cases in LLMJ. Assuming that a matrix clause must be tensed, we argue that -ta is used as an aspect morpheme -tastate, and that a verbal complex V-tastate could in principle be suffixed by a tense morpheme. This analysis is needed for LLMJ and constitutes a major departure from the previous works dealing with adjectival -ta in cNJ such as Kusumoto (in: Cuervo et al. (eds.) Formal approaches to Japanese Linguistics 3, 2001) and Ogihara (Linguist Philos 27: 557–608, 2004). According to our account, V-tastate-tapast is illicit in both LLMJ and cNJ. The form V-tastate-∅present is licit in LLMJ, whereas cNJ only accepts the tenseless form V-tastate, which reflects the gradual marginalization of this construction over the course of Japanese language history. This accounts for the distributional constraint on adjectival -ta in cNJ. Regarding semantic interpretation, V-tastate asserts in both LLMJ and cNJ that a target state (Parsons, Events in the semantics of English: A study in subatomic semantics, 1990) of V-ing holds now without entailing that V actually occurred in the past. This semantic proposal is couched in an intensional analysis of -tastate.

Sentence Final Particles Kana and Ya Attached to Nominals in Early Middle Japanese

Sentence Final Particles Kana and Ya Attached to Nominals in Early Middle Japanese

Foreword

I am glad to observe that in line with the original concept of ALA, papers chosen for publication in this issue are addressing a variety of problems pertinent to a multifaceted phenomenon such as language. There are five papers, two dealing with Japanese, one with Punjabi and two with Persian, employing multiple perspectives and methodologies.The first paper, by Irena SRDANOVIĆ and Kumiko SAKODA, is concerned with Japanese as a second language. In it the authors present a learner's corpus (C-JAS) based analysis of learner’s production of adjectives. They illustrate the general trend in adjective acquisition on the example of the adjective takai (high), examining the correlation of learners' ability with semantic domains covered in their use of adjectives. Paper also proposes new methodology to be further tested on a new larger learner's corpus now being developed at the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics.The second paper, by LI Wenchao, is looking at Japanese from the historical perspective, focusing on verb compounds in Early Middle Japanese (ENJ). The author argues that verb compounds actually developed in EMJ, from a looser association of verbs in earlier stagers of Japanese. Through weakening, compounds develop in two directions, one where the first verb morphs into a prefix, and the other where the second verb is transmuting into a directional/resultative complement, a result in accordance with grammaticalization theory.In the third paper, the authors, Barirah NAZIR, Umair AFTAB, and Ammara SAEED, are dealing passionately with the language shift away from Punjabi. The situation of Punjabi is very complex, being the second major language in Pakistan and also one of the major languages India. The authors are focusing their research on Sargodha region of Pakistan, arguing, based on analysis of questionnaires and interviews, that Punjabi indeed is experiencing language shift, due to the shifting perception of the social role of rival languages, Urdu, the national language, and English, the official language of Pakistan. This result is surprising, since Punjabi in India does not seem to be experiencing a similar shift towards Hindi and/or English.The fourth paper, by the authors Mahla SAEDI, Fateme ALAVI, and Akram SHEKARIAN BEHZADI, is a psycholinguistic study of the rate and intelligibility of speech in hearing impaired Persian speaking pupils. Their findings confirm the expected lower performance of hearing impaired pupils as compared to normally hearing ones. The findings also show statistically significant difference between hearing impaired boys and girls, boys performing better in both speed and intelligibility. On the other hand, in the group of normal pupils, it is the girls that perform better than boys. It would be interesting to know what factors, most probably social, are responsible for such a difference.The last paper, by Azadeh Sharifi MOGHADDAM and Farimah Farrahi MOGHADDAM also deals with Persian. While pointing out the lively cultural contacts between Iran and France since the 17 c. the authors are examining the semantic change undergone by French loanwords in Persian during the last 150 or so years. To explain and categorize the changes the authors propose an elaborate synchronic model of semantic change, able to encompass all of the observed changes.