Modality and grammaticalization in Japanese

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Narrog
Keyword(s):  
Japanese Language ◽  
Specific Marker ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Language History ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The Cross

Grammaticalization of modal markers has long been thought of in terms of change from deontic to epistemic meaning. This change, then, is typically thought of as a mapping between conceptual domains. Contrary to this perception, I argue in this paper that (1) change from deontic to epistemic (that is, the acquisition of epistemic meaning by deontic markers), although salient in many European languages, is cross-linguistically a marginal tendency, (2), the cross-linguistically most salient tendency in the development of modal markers is towards greater speaker-orientation, and (3), this change can best be explained by primarily referring to pragmatic processes, rather than conceptual processes. I substantiate my claims by analyzing the cross-linguistic modality data in Bybee et al. (1994), by providing a catalogue of etymologies of Modern Japanese modal markers, and by analyzing the polysemy and semantic change of one specific marker in Japanese language history (-be-si) in detail.

scholarly journals Chūya Nakahara jako twórca japońskiego sonetu: perspektywy przekładu

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 196-208
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Olszewski
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Japanese Poetry ◽  
European Languages

Chūya Nakahara as the author of Japanese sonnet: Translation perspectives This article offers a reflection – against the historical and literary background of the epoch – on Chūya Nakahara’s work (1907–1937), who was the precursor of the Japanese syllabicaccentual verse (particular of the sonnet). Comparative analysis of his poem Mata kon haru (Spring comes again) and its Polish translation (included in the only Polish anthology of contemporary Japanese poetry entitled Cherries bloomed in winter) aims at shedding light on how difficult was the adaptation of the sonnet to the Japanese language. The OJAD (Online Japanese Accent Dictionary) service seems to offer a new promise for the research practice, proving that the intonation cadence may be treated similarly as feet in the poetry written in European languages.

Adjectival Suffixes: From Latin to Romance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Rainer
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
European Languages

All languages seem to have nouns and verbs, while the dimension of the class of adjectives varies considerably cross-linguistically. In some languages, verbs or, to a lesser extent, nouns take over the functions that adjectives fulfill in Indo-European languages. Like other such languages, Latin and the Romance languages have a rich category of adjectives, with a well-developed inventory of patterns of word formation that can be used to enrich it. There are about 100 patterns in Romance standard languages. The semantic categories expressed by adjectival derivation in Latin have remained remarkably stable in Romance, despite important changes at the level of single patterns. To some extent, this stability is certainly due to the profound process of relatinization that especially the Romance standard languages have undergone over the last 1,000 years; however, we may assume that it also reflects the cognitive importance of the semantic categories involved. Losses were mainly due to phonological attrition (Latin unstressed suffixes were generally doomed) and to the fact that many derived adjectives became nouns via ellipsis, thereby often reducing the stock of adjectives. At the same time, new adjectival patterns arose as a consequence of language contact and through semantic change, processes of noun–adjective conversion, and the transformation of evaluative suffixes into ethnic suffixes. Overall, the inventory of adjectival patterns of word formation is richer in present-day Romance languages than it was in Latin.

scholarly journals Interpretations of the Mythologeme “Tree-Cross” in Old English

2020 ◽  
pp. 316-326
Author(s):  
Sergei G. Proskurin ◽  
Anna V. Proskurina
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Subject Line ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Linguistic Methods ◽  
Relevant Factors

The topicality of the appeal to the interpretation of a tree-cross mythologeme is caused by the change of the pagan worldview into Christian. The development of ideas about the Christian sign is complex, in one of the approaches to transforming the tree-cross, a part of the overcome ideas about the world as space around the world axis is preserved, i.e. the world tree. The coming era of Christianity inherits this view, and the cross itself appears as a world axis that defines the coordinates of space. The purpose of the article is to show the evolutionary semiotic row, which represents both Christian and pagan symbolism. Initially, the cross appears as a motivated view. Then the terms of the denotative plan appear, devoid of pagan connotations of the tree-cross type. In general, in the evolution of the term continuity is traced, one designation is replaced by another. For some time, the second item copies the functions and forms of the first, replacing it in the subject line. The cross as an object of worship in Christianity replaces the world tree. All new nominations of the cross are associated with the motivation of the world as the center where the altar is installed, which was initially presented in the tradition as a world tree, and then became designated by the cross. The cross, as the main Christian symbol, often appears as made of wood and is identified with the cosmic world tree growing directly into heaven. Research methods which are used in this article are as follows: philological analysis of the text and semiotic analysis of texts. The set of communicatively relevant factors that determine the statement, as well as the situational and contextual relevance of the lexical meaning, are taken into account. In turn, the necessary initial amount of communicatively relevant information is obtained on the basis of linguistic methods. In particular, data from an etymological analysis are involved. The research material was provided by the Old English written monuments accessible to the modern researcher. Texts in other Indo-European languages are occasionally referred; they act as a background showing some parallels

Phraseme zu Haus und Hof in der deutschen Sprachgeschichte

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-64
Author(s):  
Bock Bettina ◽  
Manerowa Kristina
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Central Element ◽  
List Type ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Language History ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
The One

Abstract Cultural and social change goes hand in hand with linguistic change, especially in the form of semantic change, but also as phraseological change. The following questions are addressed in this article: What happens to phrasemes when a fixed component of them is undergoing semantic change? And what happens when the meaning of a phraseme as a whole changes? Which connections between cultural-social and phraseological change become visible? Using German phrasemes from the semantic field “home” as an example, seven possible cases of the connection between semantic and phraseological change are examined: The components of a phraseme and the phraseme as a whole do not change in essential areas of their semantics and prototypicality A component of a phraseme changes its meaning regarding one or more prototypical features, but the phraseme as a whole retains its meaning A component of a phraseme changes its meaning prototypically and the phraseme gains a new overall meaning The components of a phraseme do not change with respect to their prototypicality, but the phraseme as a whole does A phraseme dies out, although the components survive A component dies out, but the phraseme itself lives on One component changes and the phraseme dies out. Methodologically, the etymology of semantic fields and linguoculturology also play a role in the examination. The semantic field “home” offers itself for the analysis in a special way, as the home has been a central element of human life through the ages, which on the one hand shows a great stability as a concept, but on the other hand is exposed to innovations again and again. Accordingly, the examples cover the entire period of German language history from Old High German to evidences from the 21st century.

The centrality of thematic relations in Japanese text

1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senko K. Maynard
Keyword(s):  
Japanese Text ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Languages ◽  
New Information ◽  
Thematic Relations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Interrogative Clauses ◽  
The Given

This paper examines three ways in which thematic relations are realized in Japanese text. Scholars in the past have focused on limited cases of thematization in Japanese — mostly realized by the thematic particle wa from the given-new information perspective. Following and advancing this tradition, in this paper I analyze three cases of thematic relations; (1) the staging effect realized by thematization and non-thematization in narrative discourse, (2) the expressive effect of the nominal predicate n(o) da which possesses thematic structural properties, and (3) the poetic effect of thematic suspension realized by thematic (interrogative) clauses. I emphasize that thematization is a phenomenon which pervades every aspect of the Japanese language. The three types of thematic relations explored in this study — although constituting only the tip of the iceberg — provide evidence for the claim that the nature of the Japanese language is theme-centered in contrast to the subject-predicate-prominent nature of Indo-European languages.

Vertical or horizontal? Reading directions in Japanese

1997 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuko Obana
Keyword(s):  
Japanese Language ◽  
Main Text ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Mathematical Equations

The Japanese language was traditionally written vertically. Recently, journals, textbooks and academic reference works have appeared with the script written horizontally. One reason for this may be that quotations of foreign names and articles (written in European languages) and mathematical equations often appear in technical texts, and it is therefore more convenient to have the main text of this kind of work written horizontally.

scholarly journals The development of locative relative markers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Ballarè ◽  
Guglielmo Inglese
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Social Variation ◽  
The Cross

Abstract The accessibility hierarchy was first proposed by Keenan & Comrie (1977) to describe the cross-linguistic distribution of relative markers in terms of likelihood of relativization of different syntactic roles. The hierarchy is also commonly believed to reflect constraints on possible changes in the domain of relativization. For example, the hierarchy predicts that locative relatives that develop into general relativizers should expand their functional range in a step-by-step fashion from lower to higher roles. In this paper, we revise existing claims about the diachrony of locative relatives. In doing so, we survey known cases of locative relatives that develop into general relativizers and we also discuss data from linguistic variation in non-standard varieties in European languages, with a focus on social variation in Italian. As we argue, data from Italian suggests that another possible cline of development of locative relatives should be acknowledged, that is, locative > concern > subject.

scholarly journals Derivatization of the Word-forming Model “OWN-ALIEN”in the Japanese Language against the Background of Historical Dynamics of theJapanese Writing System Forms Development: Diachronic and Syncronic Aspects

2018 ◽  
pp. 98-110
Author(s):  
V. Pyrogov
Keyword(s):  
System Development ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Cultural Paradigm ◽  
Historical Dynamics ◽  
The Moment

The paper attempts to study the conditions of historical origin and subsequent derivatization of the basic word-formation model “own-alien” in the Japanese language against the background of historical dynamics of the Japanese writing system development. Despite the fact that Japan and the Japanese are considered genetically isolated from the rest of the world, they repeatedly had to face the influence of external factors, in particular, to perceive and assimilate the norms and stereotypes of foreign cultures and languages, while preserving their national identity and integrity, and at the same time, to improve their own language and culture, resulting in the formation of a highly original and unique language that can be characterized as syncretic – Japanese-Chinese – with inclusion at present time of lexical elements from European languages, mainly English. The Japanese pattern of thinking has been periodically restructured throughout the history of the formation and development of their civilization. And every time at the moment of cardinal transformation of their culture one of the important if not the main factor was writing system, which served as a special mean of adjusting their culture and mentality. In recent decades, the algorithm of Japanese thinking has changed, adapting to the conditions of a new historical format (which corresponds to the synchronous type of thinking), while the Japanese writing largely preserves the traditional form, which corresponds mainly to the archaic type of thinking. As a result, objective cultural and psychological contradictions arise, and at the same time a need to find a way out of this difficult situation emerges, perhaps by further reforming the existing system of writing, creating a more adequate system of written signs that would correspond to the imperatives of the modern socio-cultural paradigm.

Grammaticalization of the scalar focus particle lian 連 in Mandarin Chinese

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Zhiqun Xing
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Focus Particle ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Semantic Transformation

This paper investigates pragmatic factors affecting the development of the focus particle lian in Mandarin Chinese. An analysis of lian’s evolution in historical texts demonstrates that lian’s semantic transformation from concrete activity to abstract grammatical meaning involved two major processes: metaphorization and inferencing. More importantly, this study provides evidence to show that due to the isolating characteristic, 1) Chinese does not restrict metaphorization to any particular category of lexical items, as Indo-European languages do (cf. Heine 1993); 2) different kinds of inferencing have affected lian in its process of semantic change and grammaticalization as opposed to the claim that different kinds of inferencing occur with different types of lexical items (cf. Traugott and König 1991); and 3) both divergence and desemantization are the results of lian’s grammaticalization. Unlike similar cases in Indo-European languages, lian has not become increasingly morphologized as it becomes more grammaticalized.

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