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Tense and Aspect in Old Japanese: Synchronic, Diachronic, And

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Tense and Aspect in Old Japanese: Synchronic, Diachronic, And TENSE AND ASPECT IN OLD JAPANESE: SYNCHRONIC, DIACHRONIC, AND TYPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Kazuha Watanabe August 2008 © 2008 Kazuha Watanabe TENSE AND ASPECT IN OLD JAPANESE: SYNCHRONIC, DIACHRONIC, AND TYPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Kazuha Watanabe, Ph. D. Cornell University 2008 The objective of this thesis is to describe the synchronic system of tense and aspect in Old Japanese. Japanese grammarians studying the tense/aspect morphology of Old Japanese usually identify four suffixes (–(ye)ri , –tari, –tu, and –nu ) as kanry ō ‘perfect’ markers and two suffixes (–ki and –kyeri ) as past tense markers. However, this analysis results in a typologically unattested temporal system, characterized by an implausibly rich inventory occupying a small semantic space. The traditional analysis is the product of an approach focusing on identifying the meanings of the suffixes based on contextual information, rather than the syntactic distribution of the suffixes with respect to the lexical semantics of the co-occurring verbs and the overall synchronic system of the language. Furthermore, previous analyses have attempted to produce a uniform analysis covering the entire 700-year period from Old to Early Modern Japanese. In contrast to previous research, I first define the semantic properties of the aspectual markers and their relation to the lexical verb, using data from well-attested languages. Second, I identify the aspectual meaning of the suffixes and the four periphrastic constructions based on the semantic values of the verbs they co-occur with in the Man’y ōsh ū. Third, I integrate these findings into the overall synchronic tense-aspect system of Old Japanese. I propose that Old Japanese had a perfective- imperfective distinction in both past and non-past tenses. Perfective was marked by – tu and –nu , which were subject to a syntactic auxiliary selection constraint, while present imperfective was marked by –(ye)ri and past imperfective by –kyeri . Additionally, –tari and the periphrastics indicated specific aspectual meanings: resultative and progressive. I then compare this synchronic system with the tense- aspect systems of well-attested languages in order to confirm the typological plausibility of the proposed system. Lastly, I examine data from Early Modern Japanese using Genji Monogatari and compare the results with the Old Japanese data. The diachronic change from Old Japanese to Early Modern Japanese provides further support for my synchronic analysis of Old Japanese. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Kazuha Watanabe received the Bachelor’s of Arts degree in French Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1995. Prior to her doctoral studies at Cornell University, she studied Linguistics at University of California, Davis under Dr. Wilbur Benware, where she developed an interest in Historical Linguistics. Watanabe received a Master’s degree in Linguistics from UC Davis in 2000. After moving to Cornell University, Watanabe expanded her interest in typological approaches to historical linguistics under Dr. John Whitman, Dr. Carol Rosen, and Dr. Wayles Browne. She has accepted a position at California State University, Fullerton, and will be Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures with a specialization in Japanese linguistics. iii This dissertation is dedicated to my loving parents Tokie Watanabe and the late Kazutami Watanabe iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first would like to thank my committee members, Dr. John Whitman, Dr. Carol Rosen, and Dr. Wayles Browne as well as an A-exam committee member Dr. Draga Zec, for their valuable comments and support throughout my time at Cornell. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to the committee chair Dr. John Whitman for his guidance, understanding, and patience. I am also grateful to Dr. Bjarke Frellesvig, who gave me a valuable experience at Hertford College, Oxford University. In addition, I would like to acknowledge my MA thesis committee members Dr. Wilbur Benware, Dr. Patrick Farrell, and Dr. Janet S. Smith at University of California, Davis, where I learned all of the fundamental knowledge in linguistics. I would especially like to thank Dr. Wilbur Benware, who inspired me to become a historical linguist. Without his guidance, I would not have been able to complete my graduate work. I would like to acknowledge the Einaudi Center at Cornell University for its financial support (East Asian Program Fellowship) during my time in Oxford. Outside of the classroom, I was very fortunate to have extremely supportive friends at Cornell. I would especially like to thank Steven Esparza, Janeen Harrell, Seth Jacobowitz, Late Mihoko Kajikawa, Bernice Lee, Eric Lief, May Martin, Masaki Matsubara, Alex Nemiroski, and Ellan Spero. You kept my sanity while I was in Ithaca. In addition, I would like to express a special gratitude to Anderw Joseph, who is not only a supportive classmate, but also kindly offered a help for editting my dissertation. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, Tokie Watanabe and the late Kazutami Watanabe. Although my father did not live to see me going through all the v process of graduate work, it was also his dream for me to become an academic. He always believed in me from the time I was a little girl. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch ….. iii Acknowledgements ….. v Table of Contents ….. vii List of Figures ….. x List of Tables ….. xi List of Abbribiations ….. xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ..... 1 1.1 Japanese language periodicization ….. 1 1.2 Old Japanese texts ….. 2 1.3 Verb conjugation patterns in Old Japanese ….. 3 1.4 The Tense and Aspect System of Old Japanese ….. 5 Chapter 2: Tense and Aspect ..... 8 2.1 Definition of the term ‘tense’ ..... 8 2.1.1 English past tense ..... 9 2.1.2 Japanese –ta and –u ..... 10 2.2 Definition of the term ‘aspect’ ..... 11 2.3 Situation aspect and lexical aspect ..... 12 2.4 Grammatical aspect ..... 23 2.5 Interaction between verbal aspect and grammatical aspect ..... 24 2.5.1 Neutral Aspect ..... 24 2.5.2 Imperfective Aspect ..... 27 2.5.3 Progressive ..... 29 2.5.4 Habitual ..... 32 2.5.5 Iterative ..... 34 2.5.6 Inchoative ..... 35 2.5.7 Perfective ..... 37 2.5.8 Perfect ..... 41 2.5.9. Resultative ..... 45 2.5.10 Completive ..... 46 2.6 Synchronic systems of aspect ..... 49 2.7 Tense and Aspect of Old Japanese ..... 52 Chapter 3: –(ye)ri , –keri , and –ki ..... 54 3.1 –(ye)ri ..... 54 3.1.1 The origin of –(ye)ri ..... 54 3.1.2 Previous accounts for the semantics of –(ye)ri ..... 55 3.1.2.1 Matsuo (1978), Yamaguchi (1980), and Tsunoji (1975)..... 56 3.1.2.2 Konoshima(1973), Hashimoto (1969), Yoshida (1973), Takeuchi (1987), and Sandness (1999) ..... 59 3.1.3 Problems with previous accounts ..... 63 3.1.3.1 Problem with philological methodology ..... 63 3.1.3.2 Problems with technical terminology in previous work ..... 70 vii 3.1.4 The distribution of –(y)eri in the Man’y ōsh ū ..... 73 3.1.4.1 The data ..... 73 3.1.4.2 The syntactic analysis ..... 76 3.1.4.3 Semantic analysis: –(ye)ri as an imperfective marker ..... 77 3.2 ki and –kyeri ..... 91 3.2.1 The origin of –ki and –keri ..... 91 3.2.2 Previous accounts for the semantics of –ki ..... 94 3.2.2.1 Yamaguchi (1985), Konoshima (1973), and Matsuo (1978)..... 95 3.2.2.2 Hirohama (1969), Yoshida (1973), Iwai (1970), and Sandness (1999)..... 99 3.2.3 Previous account for –keri ..... 101 3.2.3.1 –kyeri by Yamaguchi and Matsuo ..... 102 3.2.3.2 –kyeri by Hirohama (1969) and Konoshima (1973, 1983) ..... 105 3.2.3.3 Analysis of –kyeri by Sandness (1999) ..... 108 3.2.4 Problems with previous accounts ..... 109 3.2.5 –ki and –kyeri in the Man’y ōsh ū ..... 111 3.2.5.1 The data for –ki ..... 111 3.2.5.2 The analysis of –ki ..... 115 3.2.5.3 The data for –kyeri ..... 121 3.3 Conclusion..... 126 Chapter 4: –tu and –nu ..... 128 4.1 Syntactic characteristics of –tu and –nu ..... 12 4.2 Previous accounts for the semantics of –tu and –nu ..... 129 4.2.1 Yoshida (1973), Konoshima (1973), Otsubo, (1969) Matsuo (1978), and Iwai (1970) ..... 130 4.2.2 Sandness (1999) and Takeuchi (1987) ..... 133 4.2.3 Washio ..... 136 4.3 Problems with previous accounts ..... 138 4.4 –tu and –nu in the Man’y ōsh ū ..... 139 4.5 Conclusion ..... 157 Chapter 5: –tari and other emerging markers ..... 159 5.1 –tari ..... 160 5.1.1 Syntactic characteristics of –tari ..... 160 5.1.2 Previous analyses on the semantics of –tari ..... 160 5.1.2.1 Matsuo (1978), Yamaguchi (1985), Tsunoji (1975), and Hashimoto (1969)..... 161 5.1.2.2 Konoshima (1973), Yoshida (1973), and Sandness (1990) ..... 162 5.1.3 –tari in Manyooshu ..... 164 5.2 wiru and wori ..... 176 5.2.1 wiru ..... 178 5.2.1.1 V1 + wiru ..... 178 5.2.1.2 V1 –te + wiru ..... 182 5.2.2 wori ..... 183 5.2.2.1 V 1+wori ..... 184 5.2.2.2. V 1 –te + wori ..... 188 viii 5.3 Conclusion ..... 190 Chapter 6: Beyond the Man’y ōsh ū..... 192 6.1 The synchronic aspect system in the 8 th century ..... 192 6.2 Aspect system in Genji Monogatari ..... 198 6.3 Conclusion ..... 214 Reference ..... 217 ix LIST OF FIGURES Chapter 2 1. English past tense as an example of absolute tense ….. 9 2. Japanese –ta and –u as examples of relative tense marker ….. 11 3. Comrie’s Proposal for the relationship among aspectual concepts ..... 48 4. The relations among aspects ....
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