1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Stylistic and Social Perspectives of Historical Japanese which Formed Dialets
| Project/Area Number |
10610406
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
国語学
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| Research Institution | TOHOKU UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
KOBAYASHI Takashi Literature, Tohoku University, Associate Professor, 文学部, 助教授 (00161993)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 1999
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| Keywords | History of Dialects / History of Japanese / Stylistic and Social Perspectives / The Linguistic Atlas of Japan / The Grammar Atlas of Japanese Dialects / Dictionary of Japanese Dialects / Koma (Horse) / Keri (Auxiliary Verb) |
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| Research Abstract |
In some approaches to the study of Japanese language history, it is necessary to include viewpoints referring to variations in style, spoken or written, and in social classes. Through philological methodology, we have obtained a number of conclusions about historical facts of Japanese language. However, dialectological methodology in conjunction with philological methodology can sometimes reveal new aspects of phenomena which seem to have provided with firmly established conclusions and lead us to the reconsideration of them in terms of stylistic and social perspectives.
For example koma has been generally considered toke the poetry word meaning "horse." But in addition to this meaning, koma meant historically a foal and a male horse. And these three meanings of koma coexisted for a long time with their respective distributions specialized in a particular stylistic or social register. Especially the meaning of a male horse is hard to identify by philological methods alone. Only in conjunction with dialectological methodology have I discovered that koma meaning a male horse was used among commoners in the spoken language in medieval Japanese. Furthermore this conclusion led us to reconsidering the derivation of koma. In conclusion both the poetry usage meaning a horse and the usage meaning a male horse did not derive directly from the word meaning a foal, but developed through the usage of endearment or beautification of a horse.
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