Diachronic Study on the Structural Changes of Attendant Circumstances Clauses in Japanese

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19986
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0102:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Kikuchi Sonomi 筑波大学, 人文社会系, 助教 (70964807)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 日本語史 / 従属節 / 付帯状況節

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study empirically elucidated the structural changes of attendant circumstances clauses through diachronic investigation. It specifically focuses on expressions, such as “-te” and “-tutu” denoting the incidental state of agents and objects during actions. This study also focuses on the structural changes of attendant circumstances clauses to clarify the process and proposes a new classification of subordinate clauses based on the system of case marking; furthermore, it constructs a corpus conducive to the aforementioned investigations without relying on large-scale research institutions. In addition, this study reports its methods and challenges, examines how the term “Futaijyokyo” has been used in Japanese linguistics, and addresses issues regarding attendant circumstances clauses in Japanese education.

Free Research Field

日本語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は従来、個別の形式の共時的な研究に留まっていた付帯状況節について、その歴史的変化を明らかにした点において学術的な意義がある。また、付帯状況節の構造変化を解明することを通して、個別の形式に関する語彙論的な視点と格・修飾・接続に関する文法論的な視点とが共に求められる分析の事例を示したものとしても位置づけられる。
これに加えて、用例調査に資する新たな古典語のコーパスを構築し、その方法や課題を公表したことは当該分野のみに留まらない研究の可能性を示唆したという点で意義がある。