This paper investigates the correlation between semantic-pragmatic change of (inter)subjectification and its syntactic effects. It points out that the diachronic change of subjectification > intersubjectification (Traugott 2003) finds its synchronic counterpart in the rigid predicate order of Japanese. Furthermore, paying closer attention to a layered model in Japanese traditional linguistics, it claims that Japanese episodes of (inter)subjectification display core to peripheral positional shifts of grammaticalized items. In contrast, the opposite directionality is exhibited with the case of possible desubjectification (imperative > conditional). Putting these issues all together, the paper questions syntactic scope decrease as a parameter of grammaticalization, and supports instead structural scope increase, as in “C-command scope increase” (Tabor and Traugott 1998), “raising/upwards movement” (Roberts and Roussou 2003) and “syntactic impoverishment” (Company forthcoming a, b).
Aside from this specific focus, this paper is also an attempt to synthesize the rich tradition of Japanese linguistic studies on subjectivity with their Western counterparts.
2021. Silky entanglements in Chinese color‐naming and its diachronic change: A new materialism perspective. Color Research & Application 46:5 ► pp. 978 ff.
Mycock, Louise & Chi Lun Pang
2021. Funny that isn't it ProTags in combination at the right periphery. Journal of Pragmatics 182 ► pp. 92 ff.
2013. Facets of subjectification. Language Sciences 36 ► pp. 7 ff.
Kinuhata, Tomohide
2012. Historical development from subjective to objective meaning: Evidence from the Japanese question particle ka. Journal of Pragmatics 44:6-7 ► pp. 798 ff.
Narrog, Heiko
2010. The order of meaningful elements in the Japanese verbal complex. Morphology 20:1 ► pp. 205 ff.
Shinzato, Rumiko & Kyoko Masuda
2009. Morphophonological variability and form-function regularity: a usage-based approach to the Japanese modal adverb yahari/yappari/yappa. Language Sciences 31:6 ► pp. 813 ff.
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