Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/75956

Previous research on the difference between -ta TOKORO and -ta BAKARI in Japanese has indicated the following points. 1) BAKARI is a kind of suffix and TOKORO is a pseudo noun. 2) BAKARI can be combined with the -te form, -ta form and -ru form of verbs respectively with different meanings. On the other hand, TOKORO can be combined with the -teiru form, -ta form and ru-form of verbs and the noun itself means the same thing: a stage of one process. 3) -ta BAKARI has a connotation that only a small amount of time has passed since the action was completed, whereas -ta TOKORO expresses the final stage of an action. In this article we analyzed the difference between -ta BAKARI and -ta TOKORO from deictic and contextual points of view. The meaning of a small amount of time which BAKARI expressions carry comes from the emotional feeling of the speaker. So this expression is “deictic”. On the other hand -ta TOKORO expresses the final stage of an of action which functions as a reference point of utterance. So -ta TOKORO is a contextual expression with a reference point.