Grammar in Use Across Time and Space: Deconstructing the Japanese "Dative Subject" Construction

228 Pages·2007·2.5 MB·English

by  Misumi Sadler

Grammar in Use across Time and Space
Studies in Discourse and Grammar (SiDaG)
Studies in Discourse and Grammar is a monograph series providing a forum
for research on grammar as it emerges from and is accounted for by discourse
contexts. The assumption underlying the series is that corpora reflecting
language as it is actually used are necessary, not only for the verification of
grammatical analyses, but also for understanding how the regularities we think
of as grammar emerge from communicative needs.
Research in discourse and grammar draws upon both spoken and written
corpora, and it is typically, though not necessarily, quantitative. Monographs in
the series propose explanations for grammatical regularities in terms of recurrent
discourse patterns, which reflect communicative needs, both informational and
socio-cultural.
Editors
Sandra A. Thompson Paul J. Hopper
University of California at Santa Barbara Carnegie Mellon University
Department of Linguistics Department of English
Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Pittsburgh, PA 15213
USA USA
Volume 20
Grammar in Use across Time and Space. Deconstructing the Japanese
‘dative subject’ construction
Misumi Sadler
Grammar in Use
across Time and Space
Deconstructing the Japanese
‘dative subject’ construction
Misumi Sadler
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sadler, Misumi.
Grammar in use across time and space : deconstructing the Japanese ‘dative subject’
construction / Misumi Sadler.
p. cm. (Studies in Discourse and Grammar, issn 0928-8929 ; v. 20)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Japanese language--Grammar. I. Title.
PL533.S18 2007
495.6’5--dc22 2007031006
isbn 978 90 272 2630 3 (Hb; alk. paper)
© 2007 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
SIDAG[v.20020404] Prn:12/10/2007;10:55 F:SID20CO.tex / p.1(v)
Table of contents
Listoftables ix
Listoffigures xi
Acknowledgments xiii
chapter1
Introduction 1
1.1 Overview 1
1.2 Previousapproaches 6
1.2.1 Themultiplefunctionsoftheparticleni 6
1.2.2 TheJapanesedativesubjectconstruction 11
1.2.2.1 Theearlierdiscussions(Kuno1973;Martin1975;
Shibatani1977,1978a,1978b;Kageyama1978) 14
1.2.2.2 Transitivity(McGloin1980;Watanabe1984;
Kabata1998;Masuda1999) 17
1.2.2.3 Varyingdegreesofsubjecthood[1](Shibatani1999,
2001a,2001b) 21
1.2.2.4 Varyingdegreesofsubjecthood[2](Kumashiro2000;
Kumashiro&Langacker2003) 23
1.2.2.5 Subjectsvs.locations(Sugimoto1986;Yuasa&
Francis2006) 27
1.2.3 Generalproblemsofpreviousapproaches 30
1.3 Theoreticalapproach 31
1.3.1 EmergentGrammar 31
1.3.2 Panchrony 32
1.3.3 Subjectification 33
1.3.4 Fluidityofcategories 35
1.4 Goals 36
1.5 Organization 36
chapter2
Dataandmethodology 39
2.1 Introduction 39
2.2 Spokenversuswritten 39
SIDAG[v.20020404] Prn:12/10/2007;10:55 F:SID20CO.tex / p.2(vi)
 GrammarinUseacrossTimeandSpace
2.2.1 Characteristicsofspokenvs.writtenlanguages 39
2.2.2 Thenotionof‘sentence’inspokenlanguage 42
2.3 ModernJapanesediscoursedata 49
2.4 Criteriaforselectingthedativesubjectconstructionindiscourse 52
2.4.1 Codingschemeforpredicatetypes 52
2.4.2 “Thedativesubjectconstruction”inthepresentstudy 55
2.4.3 CodingschemesforNPs 57
2.4.4 Additionalnotes 60
2.5 Examplesofcodingclauses 63
2.5.1 VerbalpredicateswithtwocoreargumentNPs 63
2.5.2 Verbalpredicateswithonlyonecoreargument
NP(=NP ) 67
1
2.5.3 Adjectival/nominalpredicates 69
2.6 Summary 70
chapter3
Thedativesubjectconstructioninnaturallyoccurringconversation 71
3.1 Introduction 71
3.2 Overalldistribution 72
3.3 ClauseswithorwithoutovertcoreargumentNPs 74
3.4 ClauseswithnoovertcoreargumentNPs 80
3.4.1 Thenotionofpredicate‘meanings’ 81
3.4.2 Threespecifictypesofsubjectiveexpressions 83
3.4.2.1 ii 83
3.4.2.2 Lexicalizedexpressions 86
3.4.2.3 VerbswiththenegativesuffixNAI 90
3.5 ClauseswithoneovertcoreargumentNP 94
3.6 MarkingofNPs 97
3.7 Thecharacteristicsof“dativesubjects”innaturally
occurringconversation 102
3.8 Summary 107
chapter4
ThedativesubjectconstructionincontemporaryJapanesenovels 109
4.1 Introduction 109
4.2 Overalldistribution 110
4.3 ClauseswithorwithoutovertcoreargumentNPs 112
4.4 ClauseswithoneovertcoreargumentNP 115
4.5 ClauseswithnoovertcoreargumentNPs 119
4.6 MarkingofNPs 123
SIDAG[v.20020404] Prn:12/10/2007;10:55 F:SID20CO.tex / p.3(vii)
Tableofcontents 
4.7 Thecharacteristicsof“dativesubjects”incontemporary
Japanesenovels 125
4.7.1 Themarkingof“dativesubjects” 125
4.7.2 Typesof“dativesubjects” 129
4.8 Summary 131
chapter5
“Dativesubjects”acrosstime:Anexaminationofpre-modern
&modernJapanesetexts 133
5.1 Introduction 133
5.2 ThehistoryoftheJapaneselanguage:Thedivergence
andconvergenceofspokenandwrittenJapanese 134
5.3 Data 137
5.4 Ni-markedNP sinpre-modernandmodernJapanesetexts 140
1
5.4.1 StageI:Theabundanceofthemetonymicusageofni-marked
NP sinHeiancourtlyfiction(900s∼1200s) 142
1
5.4.2 StageII:Frommetonymiclocationstohumanreferents
(1200s∼1800s) 149
5.4.3 StageIII:ni-markedhumanNP s(i.e.,“dativesubjects”)in
1
modernJapanesediscourse 153
5.4.3.1 Thesuddenincreaseofni-markedhumanNP s
1
(1800s∼early1900s) 153
5.4.3.2 Ni-markedfirstpersonformsasasubjective
frameworkincontemporaryJapanesenovels 162
5.5 Summary 170
chapter6
Conclusion 171
6.1 Introduction 171
6.2 Summary 171
6.3 Thesemanticandpragmaticenrichmentofni-markedNP s 173
1
6.3.1 Fromaspatialframeworktoasubjectiveframework:
Subjectificationofni-markedNP s 174
1
6.3.2 Subject-likeNP sandlocative-likeNP s 178
1 1
6.4 Implications 180
6.5 Suggestionsforfurtherstudies 182
appendixa
Listofabbreviations 185
SIDAG[v.20020404] Prn:12/10/2007;10:55 F:SID20CO.tex / p.4(viii)
 GrammarinUseacrossTimeandSpace
appendixb
Transcriptionconventions 187
References 189
Authorindex 205
Subjectindex 209
SIDAG[v.20020404] Prn:28/08/2007;18:07 F:SID20LT.tex / p.1(ix)
List of tables
Table2.1 Modern Japanese Discourse Data (Naturally Occurring Conversa-
tions)
Table2.2 ModernJapaneseDiscourseData(ContemporaryJapaneseNovels)
Table3.1 Overalldistributionofeachpredicatetypeinconversation
Table3.2 Proportionofnai-formsamongdifferentpredicatetypes
Table3.3 Nai-formswithnoovertNPs
Table3.4 Lexicalargumentrole:Syntacticroleoflexicalcorearguments
(DuBois2003:37)
Table4.1 OveralldistributionofeachpredicatetypeincontemporaryJapanese
novels
Table4.2 Theoccurrenceof“dativesubjects”dependingonthediscoursetype
Table4.3 Typesof“dativesubjects”indiscourse
Table5.1 Pre-modernandmodernJapanesediscoursedata
Table5.2 Theoccurrenceoftheni-markedhumanNP sinwrittenJapanese
1