open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/110535

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/92085

Negation in Ainu Oral Literature Texts : Storyline Functions

日本語

物語分析

2024-03-20

Japan Association of Northern Language Studies

Northern Language Studies

14

197-218

This paper examines negative utterances in Ainu (Saru dialect) oral literature texts from a pragmatic point of view, focusing on so-called storyline negation. Such negative utterances are regarded evaluative; they express the defeat of an expectation that something would happen, but it did not. Evaluation also contributes to the reportability of the narrative and emphasizes important events in the narrative; non-events that are brought from the background to the foreground of the narrative. Furthermore, it functions to develop the storyline of a narrative, as well as to create interactional aspects to the narrative. Following previous research (Yamada 2003), this paper observed functions of storyline negation, such as indicating a problem or a turning point in the narrative; or expressing as a moral comment by the narrator. The analysis exhibited that negative utterances can be seen to express said functions in Ainu prose tales. For example, a negative utterance expressing a problem from the protagonist’s point of view contributes to the development of the storyline, since action is usually taken by the protagonist to solve the said problem. This research contributes to the understanding of the pragmatics of negation in Ainu, which has seen limited research from a pragmatic point of view. Furthermore, this analysis provides some insight to the use of negation as an element to develop the story in Ainu prose tales. Also, it is argued that negative utterances may add interactional aspect to the narrative; a recipient design which maintain the hearer’s interest. Moreover, negative utterances in character introductions can be seen to emphasize the uniqueness of the protagonist – creating a gap between reality and the story world. However, even though this paper provides some explanation for use of negation in Ainu oral literature narratives, it is inadequate to produce a comprehensive understanding of the pragmatics of negation in Ainu prose tales. First, an analysis of a larger number of texts is needed to determine the tendency of different functions. Also, since only prose tales were under the scope of this paper, a comparative study of divine epics (kamuy yukar) and heroic epics (yukar) should be considered to examine whether different genres display distinct uses of negation.

紀要論文

Version of Record

2185-7121

AA12516968