Genitive particles, historical change, and grammar: Issues in Japanese and broader implications.

要旨

This dissertation attempts to shed new light on various issues concerning historical changes undergone by genitive particles in Japanese.It examines not only various historical data (e.g.Man 'ysh, ca.759 A.D.), but also variations in modem dialects.It also considers relevant crosslinguistic data, such as 0(ld)/M(iddle)/Mod(em) English, 0/M/Mod Chinese, M/Mod Korean, 0/M/Mod (High) German, Latin, French, Turkish, Yaqui, Quechua, Classical/Mod Tibeto-Burman languages, and Australian languages.Based on this broader approach, this research offers specific claims about Japanese, as well as claims that have significant implications for general linguistics.Chapter 1 provides preliminary information about Old Japanese (OJ) of the eighth century and Modem Japanese (ModJ).Chapter 2 discusses differences among three genitive particles of OJ, namely gn, no, and tu.Chapter 3 addresses their origins.Chapter 4 is devoted to subject marking by genitives in OJ and other languages.Chapter 5 discusses historical changes undergone by genitive particles, i.e. their development into the nominative ga and the conjunctive ga, the development of theme-marking particles, and the development of quasi-nominal no.Chapter 6 examines dialectal variations in ModJ and historical developments of genitive morphemes in various languages.Chapter 7 offers an overall conclusion.Regarding the differences between GEN ga and GEN no, I claim in Chapter 2 that the so-called "pejorative/honorific distinction" in Middle Japanese (MJ) was a socially motivated, temporary and regional development based on language use at the time, and that LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABS: absolutive ACC: accusative

主題