Chapter 14. Grammaticalization of allocutivity markers in Japanese and Korean in a crosslinguistic perspective

Allocutivity is a term coined to describe a phenomenon in Basque whereby, under certain circumstances, an addressee who is not an argument of the verb is systematically encoded in all declarative main clause conjugated verb forms. Although the term is applied exclusively to the situation in Basque, similar phenomena are found in other languages as well. Indeed, despite differences in the degree of grammaticalization and usage, allocutive forms are attested in at least Mandan (Siouan) and Beja (Cushitic), where their sources remain unknown. This contrasts with the situation observed in Japanese and Korean. This paper will focus on the origin of K -(su)pni- and J -(i)mas-, two allocutive markers whose grammaticalization path appears to have been quite similar.

Published online: 28 February 2013
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.132.22ant