Cover not available
Part of
New Trends in Grammaticalization and Language Change
Edited by Sylvie Hancil, Tine Breban and José Vicente Lozano
[Studies in Language Companion Series 202] 2018
► pp. 333–360

From the inside to the outside of the sentence

Forming a larger discourse unit with jijitsu ‘fact’ in Japanese

| Meiji University
This study examines the development of the projector jijitsu ‘the fact is, in fact’ from the earlier nominal predicate jijitsu-nari/dearu/da/desu/dearimasu (fact-copulative verb) in Modern through Present-day Japanese. Evidence from corpus studies suggests that jijitsu undergoes both formal and functional changes from the inside of the sentence as a nominal predicate to the outside of the sentence as a projector, connecting preceding and following information, forming a larger discourse unit. This change is characteristic of ‘constructionalization’ in the sense of Traugott and Trousdale (2013). The nominal predicate use of jijitsu inside the sentence also goes through several formal changes in the choice of copulative verbs over time, i.e. ‘constructional changes’. Constructionalization attested in the history of jijitsu echoes the historical processes of similar constructions in European languages, which means that language users have the potential to make ‘discourse-pragmatic’ sense of a given context, and such a newly emergent sense is likely to be formally realized at the edge of a sentence.
Keywords: constructionalization beyond the sentence, constructional changes, projectors, discourse and grammar
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1A short history of jijitsu
    • 2.2Overview of research on jijitsu
      • 2.2.1A commentary inductive adverb at sentence-initial position
      • 2.2.2A kind of adverbial connector between sentences
      • 2.2.3Boundary between written and spoken languages
    • 2.3Interim summary
  • 3.Corpora
  • 4.Survey results
    • 4.1Modern Japanese periods
    • 4.2Present-day Japanese periods
  • 5.Summary and discussion
    • 5.1From the inside to the outside of the sentence for a larger discourse unit
    • 5.2Why constructionalization works
    • 5.3Local changes inside the sentence
  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 December 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.202.14shi
References

Corpora

Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ)
[URL]
Kindai Josee Zasshi Corpus
. Asuko Kondo, Yoko Mabuchi & Noriko Hattori (eds) 2012 Tokyo: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. [URL]Google Scholar
Kokuminnotomo Corpus
. Asuko Kondo (ed.) 2014 Tokyo: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics [URL].Google Scholar
Meijroku zasshi Corpus
. Asuko Kondo, Yoko Mabuchi & Noriko Hattori (eds) 2012 Tokyo: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. [URL]Google Scholar
Ninjoobon
. Akari Fujimoto & Tomokazu Takada (eds) 2015 Tokyo: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics.Google Scholar
Sharebon
. Taro Ichimura (ed.) 2015 Tokyo: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics [URL].Google Scholar
Taiyo Corpus
(CD-ROM) 2005 Tokyo: Hakubunkan Shinsha.Google Scholar

Text references

Gappon Josei no kotoba, dansei no kotoba: Shokuba-hen
. (CD-ROM) (Composite Volume Female and Male Languages at Place of Work) 2011 Gendai Nihongo Kenkyuukai (ed.). Tokyo: Hituzi Syboo Publishing.Google Scholar
Midookanpakuki Zen Chuushaku, Kaneigannen
(An Annotated Edition of Midookanpakuki, Kaneigannen [c. 1017]) 1985 YutakaYamanaka (ed.). Tokyo: Kokushokankookai.Google Scholar
Senjichu no hanashi kotoba, razio dorama daihon kara
(CD-ROM) (Spoken Language during Wartime: Radio Drama Transcripts) 2004 Orie Endo, Taku Kimura, Takashi Sakurai, Chieko Suzuki, Haruko Hayakawa & Toshiaki Yasuda (eds). Tokyo: Hituzi Syboo Publishing.Google Scholar

Dictionaries

Daijiten
(An Unabridged Dictionary of the Japanese Language) 1994 [1936]. Vol. 12. reprinted edn. Tokyo: Heibonsha.Google Scholar
Doi, Tadao
(editor in chief) 1994 Jidaibetsu Kokugojiten Muromachi Jidai-hen San (The Historical Japanese Dictionary, Muromachi Period III). Tokyo: Sanseido.Google Scholar
Doi, Tadao, Morita, Takeshi & Chonan, Minoru
(eds) 1980 Hooyaku Nippo Jisho (The Japanese Version of Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam). Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar
Ebara, Taizo
2008 Edogo Daijiten (An Unabridged Dictionary of the Edo Language), Tsutomu Ogata (ed.). Tokyo: KadokawaGoogle Scholar
Kitahara, Yasuo
(editor in chief) 2006 Nihon Kokugo Daiijiten (The Dictionary of the Japanese Language). Tokyo: Shogakkan.Google Scholar
Maeda, Isamu
(ed.) 1974 Edogo Daijiten (An Unabridged Dictionary of the Edo Language). Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Morita, Takeshi
(ed.) 1989 Hooyaku Nippo Jisho Sakuin (Indices to the Japanese Version of Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam ).Google Scholar
Okubo, Tadakuni & Kinoshita, Kazuko
(eds) 1991 Edogo Jiten (A Dictionary of the Edo Language). Tokyo: Tokyo-do.Google Scholar

Secondary sources

Aijmer, Karin
2007 The interface between discourse and grammar: The fact is that . In Connectives as Discourse Landmarks [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 161], Agnès Celle & Ruth Huart (eds), 31–46. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beeching, Kate & Detges, Ulrich
2014 Introduction. In Discourse Functions at the Left and Right Periphery, Kate Beeching & Ulrich Detges (eds), 1–23. Leiden: Brill.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brinton, Laurel J.
2010 Discourse markers. In Historical Pragmatics, Andreas H. Jucker & Irma Taavitsainen (eds), 285–314. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L.
2015 Language Change. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Curzan, Anne
2017 Periodization in the history of the English language. In The History of English: Historical Outlines from Sound to Text, Laurel J. Brinton & Alexander Bergs (eds), 8–35. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, John W.
2003 Discourse and grammar. In The New Psychology of Language, Vol. 2, Michael Tomasello (ed.), 47–88. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Fujiwara, Hirofumi
2011 On the formation of adverbs that introduce true information (written in Japanese). In Aspects of Grammatical Descriptions, Chuo University Institute of Humanities (ed.), 41–64. Tokyo: Chuo University.Google Scholar
Furuhashi, Nobuyoshi, Suzuki, Tai & Ishii, Hisao
eds 2012 Gendaigo kara Kogo o Hiku Look up Ancient Words by Modern Words Tokyo Kawadeshoboo
Frellesvig, Bjarke
2010 A History of the Japanese Language. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gentens, Caroline, Kimps, Ditte, Davidse, Kristin, Jacobs, Gilles, Van linden, An & Brems, Lieselotte
2016 Mirativity and rhetorical structure: The development and prosody of disjunct and anaphoric adverbials with ‘no’ wonder . In Outside the Clause. Form and Function of Extra-Clausal Constituents [Studies in Language Companion Series 178], Gunther Kaltenböck, Evelien Keizer & Arne Lohmann (eds),125–156. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E.
2006 Constructions at Work. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Higashiizumi, Yuko
2015 Periphery of utterance and (Inter) subjectification in Modern Japanese: A case study of competing causal conjunctions and connective particles. In New Directions in Grammaticalization Research [Studies in Language Companion Series 166], Andrew D. M. Smith, Graeme Trousdale & Richard Waltereit (eds), 135–156. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P.
2004 Lexicalization and grammaticalization: Opposite or orthogonal? In What Makes Grammaticalization? A Look from its Fringes and its Components, Walter Bisang, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Björn Wiemer (eds), 21–42. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hilpert, Martin
2013 Constructional Change in English. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Thompson, Sandra A.
2008 Projectability and clause combining in interaction. In Cross-Linguistic Studies of Clause Combining: The Multi-Functionality of Conjunctions [Typological Studies in Language 80], Ritva Laury (ed.), 99–123. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Horie, Kaoru
2012 The interactional origin of nominal predicate structure in Japanese: A comparative and historical pragmatic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics 44: 663–679.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney & Pullum, Geoffrey K.
2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Izutsu, Katsunobu & Izutsu, Mitsuko N.
2016 Exaptation and adaptation: Two historical routes to final particles in Japanese. In Exaptation and Language Change [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 336], Muriel Norde & Freek Van de Velde (eds), 377–402. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kawase, Suguru
2016 Review of Narumi (2015). Nihongo no Kenkyu 12(3): 141–148.Google Scholar
Keizer, Evelien
2016 The (the) fact is (that) construction in English and Dutch. In Outside the Clause. Form and Function of Extra-Clausal Constituents [Studies in Language Companion Series 178], Gunther Kaltenböck, Evelien Keizer & Arne Lohmann (eds), 59–96. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kerr, Betsy
2014 Left dislocation in French. In Perspectives on Linguistic Structure and Context.Studies in honor of Knud Lambrecht [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 244], Stacey Katz Bourns & Lindsy L. Myers (eds), 223–240. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W.
1987 Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Vol 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
2008 Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. Oxford: OUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lenker, Ursula
2015 Knitting and splitting information: Medial placement of linking adverbials in the history of English. In Contact, Variation, and Change in the History of English [Studies in Language Companion Series 159], Simone E. Pfenninger, Olga Timofeeva, Anne-Christine Gardner, Alpo Honkapohja, Marianne Hundt & Daniel Schreier (eds), 11–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Mann, William & Thompson, Sandra A.
1988 Rhetorical structure theory: Toward a functional theory of text organization. Text 8: 243–281.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morimoto, Junko
1994 Hanashite no Shukan o Arawasu Hukshi nitsuite (On Japanese Adverbs of the Speaker’s Subjective Attitude). Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Narrog, Heiko & Heine, Bernd
2017 Grammaticalization. In The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax, Adam Ledgeway & Ian Roberts (eds), 7–27. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Narumi, Shinichi
2015 Nihongo ni okeru Kango no Hen’yoo no Kenkyu: Hukushi-ka o Chuushin to shite (Studies in the Japanization of Chinese Loanwords: Focusing on Adverbialization). Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo Publishing.Google Scholar
Noël, Dirk
2007 Diachronic construction grammar and grammaticalization theory. Functions of Language 14(2): 177–202.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Noguchi, Keiko
2016 “Hobo-hobo” “Ima-ima?”!: Kuizu Okashina Nihongo (“Approximate-approximate Now-now?”!: Funny Japanese Quizzes). Tokyo: Kobunsha.Google Scholar
Onodera, Noriko O.
2004 Japanese Discourse Markers. Synchronic and Diachronic Discourse Analysis [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 132]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Onodera, Noriko O. & Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
(eds) 2016 Diachronic and Cross-Linguistic Approach to Form-Function-Periphery (LP and RP) Mapping. Special issue of the Journal of Historical Pragmatics 17(2).Google Scholar
Otake, Yoshio
2009 No da ni Taioosuru Eigo no Koobun (The Japanese No da-Construction and the Corresponding English Constructions). Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan
1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Saegusa, Reiko
2013 Meishi kara hukushi, setsuzokushi e (From nouns to adverbs and conjunctions). Department Bulletin Paper 4: 49–61. Tokyo: Hitotsubashi University.Google Scholar
Schmid, Hans-Jörg
2000 English Abstract Nouns as Conceptual Shells: From Corpus to Cognition. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shibasaki, Reijirou
2010 Frequency as a cause of semantic change. In Formal Evidence in Grammaticalization Research [Typological Studies in Language 94], An Van linden, Jean-Christophe Verstraete & Kristin Davidse (eds), 225–244. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
2014a On the development of the point is and related issues in the history of American English. English Linguistics 31(1): 79–113.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014b On the grammaticalization of the thing is and related issues in the history of American English. In Studies in the History of the English Language: Evidence and Method in Histories of English, Michael Adams, Robert D. Fulk & Laurel J. Brinton (eds), 99–122. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
2017 Danwakoozoo no kakuchoo to koobunka nitsuite (Expansion of discourse-syntactic structures and constructionalization). In Nihongo Goyooron Fooramu 2 (Japanese Pragmatics Forum 2), Shigehiro Kato & Masato Takiura (eds), 107–133. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
2018 Sequentiality and the emergence of new constructions. In Explorations in English Historical Syntax [Studies in Language Companion Series 198], Hubert Cuyckens, Hendrik De Smet, Liesbet Heyvaert & Charlotte Maekelberghe (eds), 285–308. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi
1990 The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Shin’ya, Teruko
2014 Studies on Noun Orientation of Japanese Language ( written in Japanese ). Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
Smith, Andrew D. M., Trousdale, Graeme & Waltereit, Richard
2015 Introduction. In New Directions in Grammaticalization Research [Studies in Language Companion Series 166], Andrew D. M. Smith, Graeme Trousdale & Richard Waltereit (eds), 1–8. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Tabor, Whitney & Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
1998 Structural scope expansion and grammaticalization. In The Limits of Grammaticalization [Typological Studies in Language 37], Anna Giacalone Ramat & Paul J. Hopper (eds), 229–272. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Takahashi, Keiko & Higashiizumi, Yuko
2014 Usage of kekka in Modern Japanese Corpora (written in Japanese). Proceedings of the Sixth Corpus Japanese Linguistics Workshop, 103–112. Tokyo: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL).Google Scholar
Takeuchi, Michiko
1973 Hukushi to wa nanika (What adverbs are). In Rentaishi, hukushi (Adnominal nouns and adverbs), Kazuhiko Suzuki & Ooki Hayashi (eds), 71–146. Tokyo: Meijishoin.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Makiro
2012 Meijikooki kara Taishooki no goi no reberu to goshu (Levels and types of words from Late Meiji to Taisho eras). Tokyo: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. [URL]
Tatsuno, Kazuo
2007 Bunshoo no Migakikata (How to Polish One’s Writing). Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
2003 Constructions in grammaticalization. In The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Brian D. Joseph & Richard D. Janda (eds), 624–647. Oxford: Blackwell.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Toward a constructional framework for research on language change. In Grammaticalization – Theory and Data [Studies in Language Companion Series 166], Sylvie Hancil & Ekkehard Köning (eds), 87–105. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
2015 Investigating ‘periphery’ from a functionalist perspective. Linguistics Vanguard 1(1): 119–130.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Dasher, Richard B.
2002 Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Trousdale, Graeme
2013 Constructionalization and Constructional Changes. Oxford: OUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, Minoru
1971 Kokugo Koobunron (A Syntactic Theory of Japanese). Tokyo: Hanawa-shobo.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna
2006 English: Meaning and Culture. Oxford: OUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wray, Alison
2009 Identifying formulaic language: Persistent challenges and new opportunities. In Formulaic Language, Vol. 1: Distribution and Historical Change [Typological Studies in Language 82], Roberta Corrigan, Edith A. Moravcsik, Hamid Ouali & Kathleen M. Wheatley (eds), 27–52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wischer, Ilse
2006 Grammaticalization. In Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 5, 2nd edn, Keith Brown (ed.), 129–135. Oxford: Elsevier.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Haselow, Alexander & Sylvie Hancil
2021. Grammar, discourse, and the grammar-discourse interface. In Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series, 219], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Heine, Bernd, Gunther Kaltenböck, Tania Kuteva & Haiping Long
2021. Chapter 1. On the rise of discourse markers. In Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series, 219], ► pp. 24 ff. DOI logo
Shibasaki, Reijirou
2021. Chapter 4. Reanalysis and the emergence of adverbial connectors in the history of Japanese. In Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series, 219], ► pp. 102 ff. DOI logo
Shibasaki, Reijirou
2023. Formulaicity and formulaic expressions in Japanese: an introduction. Journal of Japanese Linguistics 39:1 ► pp. 5 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 november 2023. 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.