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Part of
Japanese Mood and Modality in Systemic Functional Linguistics: Theory and Application
Edited by Ken-Ichi Kadooka
[Not in series 234] 2021
► pp. 51–100

Chapter 3
Grammatical metaphor of Transitivity, Mood and Modality in Japanese

A functional perspective

| Niigata University

In this chapter, we consider the applicability of the notion of grammatical metaphor to the study of Japanese. We take up Transitivity and reconfirm the fundamental concepts of grammatical metaphor, and introduce the notions of softening and strengthening metaphors as a way of understanding Mood and Modality metaphors. We then discuss the distinction between the Mood-shifting type and the Mood-shift-unbound type of metaphors, and consider the derived metaphors of Mood as well as the meta-Mood and meta-Modality metaphors. We contrast ‘daroo’ with English ‘will/would’ and ‘to omoimasu’ with English ‘I think’ and examine their similarities and differences. Finally, we argue that grammatical metaphor is viable for the analysis of not only English but also Japanese.

Keywords: Transitivity metaphor, Japanese nominalisation, naturalised metaphor, softening/strengthening metaphor, meta-Mood metaphor, meta-Modality metaphor, derived metaphor of Mood, monologic metaphor, Japanese Modality complex, metaphorical crossover
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ideational metaphor and the distinction between congruency and metaphoricity
    • 2.1Basic concepts
    • 2.2What is congruent to what?
    • 2.3From meaning to lexico-grammatical form
    • 2.4Congruency and its cross-lingual applicability
    • 2.5The distinction between naturalness and congruency
    • 2.6Nominalisation and ideational metaphor
    • 2.7Summary about ideational metaphor
  • 3.Interpersonal metaphors in Japanese
    • 3.1Mood in English
    • 3.2Mood in Japanese
    • 3.3The whole system of the Japanese Mood
    • 3.4Mood metaphor in Japanese
      • 3.4.1The nature of Mood metaphor
      • 3.4.2Type-A Mood metaphor in Japanese
      • 3.4.3Type-B Mood metaphor in Japanese
    • 3.5Strengthening and softening effects of Mood metaphors
      • 3.5.1Strengthening Metaphor of Mood
      • 3.5.2Mood-shifting metaphor of Mood (indirect and softening type)
  • 4.Modality metaphor
    • 4.1English modality as viewed from SFL
      • 4.1.1The corresponding relations of the major interpersonal categories
      • 4.1.2The definition of Modality in SFL
    • 4.2Modality system in Japanese
    • 4.3Metaphor of Modality: A contrast between English and Japanese
      • 4.3.1Srengthening explicit metaphor of Modality
      • 4.3.2Subjunctive as a softening metaphor of Modality
    • 4.4Summary of the metaphors of Mood and Modality
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 23 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.234.02fuk
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