2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

A Foundational Study on the Historical Development of Evaluative Degree Adverbs in Japanese

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23720226
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Japanese linguistics
Research Institution	Utsunomiya University
Principal Investigator	TAWA Makiko 宇都宮大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (30431696)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2012
Keywords	評価的な程度副詞 / 史的変遷 / 高程度を表す副詞 / 評価性 / 程度副詞体系
Research Abstract	As part of a series of studies on the organization of degree adverbs in Japanese, a foundational research has been done with respect to boosting and compromising evaluative degree adverbs, such amari(ni) and kanari, in an aim to establish their relevance to the semantic functions of evaluation and gradability. The main results obtained from this research reveal that the systematic emergence of boosting and compromising evaluative degree adverbs after the Muromachi period induces the systematic disappearance of maximizing degree adverbs, such as ito and kihamete, widely used in the mid-Heian period.

(4 results)