Cover not available
Article published In:
The Rise and Development of Evidential and Epistemic Markers
Edited by Silvio Cruschina and Eva-Maria Remberger
[Journal of Historical Linguistics 7:1/2] 2017
► pp. 213–244

Miratives in Japanese

The rise of mirative markers via grammaticalization

| University of Tsukuba
| Tohoku University

The notion of mirativity as a grammatical category separate from evidentiality is controversial, but a certain amount of cross-linguistic evidence speaks for its validity. The aim of this study is to investigate this notion in contemporary and earlier Japanese, which is shown to have mirative constructions: (i) no miratives, (ii) koto miratives, and (iii) lexical miratives. The particles no and koto are polyfunctional, and they have recently gained a mirative function. Lexical miratives are uttered by the younger generation. These findings raise a diachronic issue regarding the emergence of the three mirative constructions. Adopting Cruschina’s (2011) cartographic approach to discourse-related phenomena and the notion of “emotional vocative” offered by Yamada (1936), we argue that what binds the three constructions together is the involvement of the IFocP (Information Focus Phrase) and that their emergences are all explained by grammaticalization paths starting from nominals.

Keywords: information structure, sentence-final particles, formal nouns, semi-lexical categories, grammaticalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Mirative constructions in contemporary Japanese
    • 2.1 No miratives and koto miratives: Comparison with evidentials
    • 2.2Lexical miratives as nominal predicates
  • 3.A cartographic approach to Japanese mirative constructions
    • 3.1 Cruschina’s (2011) cartographic approach
    • 3.2Application to Japanese miratives
    • 3.3Summary
  • 4.Diachronic development of Japanese mirative constructions
    • 4.1Grammaticalization of no miratives and koto miratives
    • 4.2Grammaticalization of the lexical mirative based on a copula-less bare adjective
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 23 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.7.1-2.09shi
References
Abe, Jun
1999 On Directionality of Movement: A case of Japanese right dislocation. Nagoya University unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Backhouse, Anthony E.
2004 Inflected and Uninflected Adjectives in Japanese. Adjective Classes: A cross-linguistic typology ed. by R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, 50–73, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Belletti, Adriana
2004 Aspects of the Low IP Area. The Structure of IP and CP: The cartography of syntactic structures, Vol. 21 ed. by Luigi Rizzi, 16–51, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
1999 Adverbs and Functional Heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Corver, Norbert
2008 On Silent Semi-lexical PERSON. Lingue e Linguaggio 71.5–24.Google Scholar
Corver, Norbert & Henk van Riemsdijk
eds. 2001 Semi-Lexical Categories: The function of content words and the content of function words. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cruschina, Silvio
2010 Fronting as Focalisation in Sicilian. Syntactic Variation: The dialects of Italy ed. by Roberta D’Alessandro, Adam Ledgeway, & Ian Roberts, 247–260, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2011 Discourse-Related Features and Functional Projections. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DeLancey, Scott
1997 Mirativity: The grammatical marking of unexpected information. Linguistic Typology 11.33–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 The Mirative and Evidentiality. Journal of Pragmatics 331.369–382. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Still Mirative after All these Years. Linguistic Typology 161.529–564.Google Scholar
Endo, Yoshio
2007 Locality and Information Structure: A cartographic approach to Japanese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Illocutionary Force and Modal Particle in the Syntax of Japanese. Modality and Theory of Mind Elements Across Languages ed. by Werner Abraham & Elisabeth Leiss, 405–424, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frellesvig, Bjarke
2001 A Common Korean and Japanese Copula. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 101.1–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Rexach, Javier & Melvin González-Rivera
2014 Spanish Predicative Verbless Clauses and the Left Periphery. Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish ed. by Andreas Dufter & Álvaro S. Octavio de Toledo, 101–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, Nobuko
2010 CP-ryoikikarano Kushugono Ninka (Licensing of Null Subjects from CP-Layers). Togoronno Shintenkaito Nihongokenkyu (Development of Syntactic Theory and the study of Japanese) ed. by Nobuko Hasegawa, 31–65. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, Yoko
2015 Japanese: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva
2002 World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hiraiwa, Ken & Shinichiro Ishihara
2012 Syntactic Metamorphosis: Clefts, sluicing, and in-situ focus in Japanese. Syntax 151.142–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hirose, Yukiko
2013 Deconstruction of the Speaker and the Three-Tier Model of Language Use. Tsukuba English Studies 321.1–28.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
1993 Grammaticalization, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Horie, Kaoru
1998 On the Polyfunctionality of the Japanese Particle no: From the perspective of ontology and grammaticalization. Studies in Japanese Grammaticalization ed. by Toshio Ohori, 169–192. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar
Iitoyo, Kiichi
1973 Keiyosi-Keiyodosino Gokan: Kakukatsuyokeino Yoho (Stems of Adjectives and Adjectival Verbs: Functions of Conjugated Forms). Keiyosi-Keiyodosi (Adjectives and Adjectival Verbs) ed. by Kazuhiko Suzuki & Daiki Hayashi, 163–206. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, Takashi & Miyuki Sawamura
2014 Monono Iikata Nishi-higashi (Expressive Difference in Western Japanese and Eastern Japanese). Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar
Konno, Hiroaki
2012 I-ochi: Katachito Imino Intafeisuno Kantenkara (The Japanese Adjectival Conjugational Ending Drop Construction: From a syntax-semantics interface perspective). Gengo Kenkyu 1411.5–31.Google Scholar
Masuoka, Takashi & Yukinori Takubo
1992 Kiso Nihongobunpoo Kaiteiban (Japanese Grammar: New edition). Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar
Miyagawa, Shigeru
1987 Lexical Categories in Japanese. Lingua 731.29–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murasugi, Keiko
1991 Noun Phrases in Japanese and English: A study in syntax, learnability and acquisition. University of Connecticut, Storrs PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Nishiyama, Kunio
1999 Adjectives and the Copulas in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 81.183–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Katsuyookeino Keitairon, Toogoron, Oninron, Tsuuji (Morphology of Conjugation, Syntax, Phonology. and Diachrony). Katsuyooron no Zensen (Theory of Conjugation) ed. by Kenichi Mihara & Yoshio Nitta, 153–189. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar
Ohkado, Masayuki
1991 On the Status of Adjectival Nouns in Japanese. Lingua 831.67–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paul, Waltraud
2014 Why Particles Are Not Particular: Sentence-final particles in Chinese as heads of a split CP. Studia Linguistica 681.77–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ransom, Evelyn N.
1988 The Grammaticalization of Complementizers. BLS 141.364–374. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery. Elements of Grammar ed. by Liliane Haegeman, 281–331. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Ian & Anna Roussou
2003 Syntactic Change: A minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shimada, Masaharu
2013 Coordinate Compounds: Comparison between English and Japanese. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 101.77–96.Google Scholar
2015 Apparent Omission of Inflectional Endings in Japanese Adjectives. Paper presented at the conference The International Workshop on Syntactic Cartography 2015, Beijing Language and Culture University.
Shimizu, Yasuyuki
2015 Gendaigono Keiyoshigokangatakandobunno Kozo (Adjective Stem-Type Sentences in Modern Japanese: The distinction between phrasal nominal structures and small clause structures). Gengo Kenkyu 1481.123–141.Google Scholar
Speas, Margaret
2004 Evidentiality, Logophoricity, and the Syntactic Representation of Pragmatic Features. Lingua 1141.255–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Takita, Kensuke
2011 Argument Ellipsis in Japanese Right Dislocation. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 181.380–391.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Hidekazu
2001 Right-Dislocation as Scrambling. Journal of Linguistics 371.551–579. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Uehara, Satoshi
1998 Syntactic Categories in Japanese: A cognitive and typological introduction. Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers.Google Scholar
2002 Nihongoniokeru Goino Kategoriika (Categorization of Words in Japanese). Ninchigengogaku II: Kategoriika (Cognitive Linguistics II: Categorization) ed. by Yoshio Ohori, 81–103, Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Akira
1996 Nominative-Genitive Conversion and Agreement in Japanese: A cross-linguistic perspective. The Journal of East Asian Linguistics 51.373–410. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wrona, Janick
2005 The Modern Japanese Complementisers no and koto and Their Old Japanese Precursors: A diachronic explanation for free variation. Oxford Working Papers in Lingusitics 101 ed. by Anna McNay, 119–136.Google Scholar
2008 The Old Japanese Complement System. Kent: Global Oriental. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yamada, Yoshio
1936 Nihonbunpoogaku Gairon (Introduction to Japanese Linguistics) Tokyo: Hobunkan.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Hyslop, Gwendolyn
2020. Grammaticalized sources of Kurtöp verbal morphology. Studies in Language 44:1 ► pp. 132 ff. DOI logo
Yuasa, Etsuyo
2021. Constructionalization of Japanese koto imperatives. In Modality and Diachronic Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 32], ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.