Historical Study on the Inheritance of Ancient Japanese Compound Verbs into Modern Japanese

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19989
• 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: Aichi University of Education
• Principal Investigator: Abe Hiroshi 愛知教育大学, 教育学部, 助教 (60965482)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 複合動詞 / 日本語史 / 語彙

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigates the historical evolution of compound verbs containing the transitive verb “toru,” with a focus on the transitive verb “torimotsu.”In ancient Japanese, the word “torimotsu” had the meanings of “to take hold of an object” and “to conduct government affairs,” but the former meaning has been lost historically, and the modern Japanese mainly expresses the meaning of “to mediate human relations, etc.” which seems to have originated from the latter meaning.Research revealed that this change was completed in the late medieval and early modern periods.This is roughly in line with the period when changes in the internal structure of compound verbs are said to have occurred in previous studies, suggesting that changes in internal structure may be related to changes in the semantic system.It remains to be seen whether similar results can be seen with “tori + verb” other than “torimotsu”.

Free Research Field

日本語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

動詞と動詞を直接的に結合させて新たな動詞（複合動詞）を生み出すという造語法は、世界的にも特に日本語において発達している。現代語の複合動詞は多くの研究が蓄積されてきた。しかしその一方、歴史的な複合動詞研究も少なくはないものの、未解明な部分が多く残されている。現代語の複合動詞体系は歴史的所産であるため、現代語複合動詞を知るにはその歴史の解明が重要である。本研究は、古代語の複合動詞がどのように現代語まで継承されているのかについて、「取る」を前項とする複合動詞を中心に考察したものであり、現代語の複合動詞体系がどのように成立してきたのかを知る一助となるものである。