北方言語研究 = Northern Language Studies;第2号

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アルタイ型言語における準動詞と言いさしについて

風間, 伸次郎

Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/49255

Abstract

This paper aims to show that intra-clausal syntax is crucially related to inter-clausal syntax and the development of insubordination. It also examines Evans’s (2007) claim that the insubordination phenomenon often pertains to evidential and modal meaning. The term “Altaic-type language” (Kamei, Koono, and Chino 1996: 499) refers to a typologically coherent group of languages rather than to a genetically related group of languages. In this study, I use this term for the group of languages where the modifier always precedes the head, and most importantly, the predicate comes sentence-final. The languages examined in this study can be classified into two or three groups: on one hand, Korean and Nivkh have “verbal adjectives” (i.e., adjectives that behave like, or can be treated as a subclass of, verbs); on the other, the Altaic languages have “nominal adjectives.” Old Japanese is classified as the latter, but Contemporary Japanese constitutes yet another group, or a language that has particular adjectives for one class of lexemes and nominal adjectives for the other. The conclusions of the present study are as follows: (i) Languages that have nominal adjectives, including Altaic-type languages, can end a sentence with the adnominal-nominal (verb) form, whereas languages that have verbal adjectives, including Nivkh and Korean, cannot. (ii) In languages that have nominal adjectives, where a sentence may be terminated with the adnominal-nominal (verb) form or with the finite verb form, evidentiality may be a crucial factor that determines this choice. (iii) In languages that have nominal adjectives, it is not common for the adverbial (verb) form to terminate a sentence. By contrast, in languages that have verbal adjectives, there do exist adverbial (verb) forms that may terminate a sentence with high frequency. (iv) In general, when an adverbial (verb) form is used to terminate a sentence, the sentence carries a certain modal feature. However, in languages that have verbal adjectives, this does not hold true, and the sentence carries an unmarked modal feature.

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