A historical study of Japanese adjectives with a focus on changes in word formation

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K13059
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02070:Japanese linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Japan Women's University (2022-2023); Fukuoka Women's Junior College (2020-2021)
• Principal Investigator: MURAYAMA Miwako 日本女子大学, 文学部, 講師 (50783586)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 語形成 / 語構成 / 形容詞 / 派生 / 複合

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study is to examine how the word formation of adjectives has historically taken place, with particular attention to word formation methods using adjectives as material. The results show that, mainly from the Muromachi to the Edo period, various examples of secondary derivation of neo-adjectives from adjectives were observed, many of which have tended to decline since the Early Modern period.
Therefore, in order to clarify the history of word formation from adjectives, (1) the consecutive series of adjectives with expressive content similar to compound adjectives (e.g. ‘hosoku (te) nagai’) and (2) the formation of the transitive and intransitive pairs derived from adjectives, were examined based on historical documents.

Free Research Field

日本語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、既存の形容詞を素材として二次的に形容詞を派生する造語として、「いまいましい＞いまいま【わしい】」のように接尾辞を付加するもの、「【わる】甘い」「【わる】長い」（いずれもその形容詞の程度が過度であることを表す）のように「ワル（悪）」を構成要素とするものなどの事例を報告し、そのような造語法が特に室町期～江戸期にかけて見られるものであることを示した。日本語における造語の歴史上、当該時期に注目する必要があることを示したこと、形容詞を複数用いて何らかの表現を行う際に、どのような方策があり得たか（そこに時代差や傾向があるか）を問題提起したことに本研究の学術的意義がある。