Grammar in Use across Time and Space
Deconstructing the Japanese 'dative subject' construction
1st Edition
Published on 6. November 2007
XIV, 212 pages
978-90-272-9174-5 (ISBN)
Description
This monograph contains the first systematic investigation of the Japanese 'dative subject' construction across time and space. It demonstrates that, in order to capture what speakers/writers know about how to put an utterance or a clause together, it is necessary to pay attention to what they do in actual language use and in different discourse types. The work also shows the importance of diachronic perspectives to help us better understand the ways in which a particular grammatical structure is represented synchronically. By utilizing modern Japanese conversation, contemporary Japanese novels, and a pre-modern and modern Japanese literature corpus, the study highlights the role of 'dative subjects' at the semantic and discourse-pragmatic levels. Specifically, it demonstrates that what has been considered to be a most 'grammatical' aspect of Japanese actually turns out to be rather pragmatically oriented.
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Misumi Sadler
Grammar in Use across Time and Space
Deconstructing the Japanese 'dative subject' construction
Book
11/2007
John Benjamins Publishing Co
€111.30
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Content
- Grammar in Use across Time and Space
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Table of contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1.1. Overview
- 1.2. Previous approaches
- 1.2.1. The multiple functions of the particle ni
- 1.2.2. The Japanese dative subject construction
- 1.2.3. General problems of previous approaches
- 1.3. Theoretical approach
- 1.3.1. Emergent Grammar
- 1.3.2. Panchrony
- 1.3.3. Subjectification
- 1.3.4. Fluidity of categories
- 1.4. Goals
- 1.5. Organization
- Data and methodology
- 2.1. Introduction
- 2.2. Spoken versus written
- 2.2.1. Characteristics of spoken vs. written languages
- 2.2.2. The notion of `sentence' in spoken language
- 2.3. Modern Japanese discourse data
- 2.4. Criteria for selecting the dative subject construction in discourse
- 2.4.1. Coding scheme for predicate types
- 2.4.2. ``The dative subject construction'' in the present study
- 2.4.3. Coding schemes for NPs
- 2.4.4. Additional notes
- 2.5. Examples of coding clauses
- 2.5.1. Verbal predicates with two core argument NPs
- 2.5.2. Verbal predicates with only one core argument NP (=NP1)
- 2.5.3. Adjectival/nominal predicates
- 2.6. Summary
- The dative subject construction in naturally occurring conversation
- 3.1. Introduction
- 3.2. Overall distribution
- 3.3. Clauses with or without overt core argument NPs
- 3.4. Clauses with no overt core argument NPs
- 3.4.1. The notion of predicate `meanings'
- 3.4.2. Three specific types of subjective expressions
- 3.5. Clauses with one overt core argument NP
- 3.6. Marking of NPs
- 3.7. The characteristics of ``dative subjects'' in naturally occurring conversation
- 3.8. Summary
- The dative subject construction in contemporary Japanese novels
- 4.1. Introduction
- 4.2. Overall distribution
- 4.3. Clauses with or without overt core argument NPs
- 4.4. Clauses with one overt core argument NP
- 4.5. Clauses with no overt core argument NPs
- 4.6. Marking of NPs
- 4.7. The characteristics of "dative subjects'' in contemporary Japanese novels
- 4.7.1. The marking of ``dative subjects''
- 4.7.2. Types of ``dative subjects''
- 4.8. Summary
- Dative subjects'' across time
- 5.1. Introduction
- 5.2. The history of the Japanese language: The divergence and convergence of spoken and written Japanese
- 5.3. Data
- 5.4. Ni-marked NP1s in pre-modern and modern Japanese texts
- 5.4.1. Stage I: The abundance of the metonymic usage of ni-marked NP1s in Heian courtly fiction (900s 1200s)
- 5.4.2. Stage II: From metonymic locations to human referents (1200s1800s)
- 5.4.3. Stage III: ni-marked human NP1s (i.e., ``dative subjects'') in modern Japanese discourse
- 5.5. Summary
- Conclusion
- 6.1. Introduction
- 6.2. Summary
- 6.3. The semantic and pragmatic enrichment of ni-marked NP1s
- 6.3.1. From a spatial framework to a subjective framework: Subjectification of ni-marked NP1s
- 6.3.2. Subject-like NP1s and locative-like NP1s
- 6.4. Implications
- 6.5. Suggestions for further studies
- List of abbreviations
- Transcription conventions
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
- The series Studies in Discourse and Grammar
