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Directionality and Subjective Construal of Japanese Language (Part 1): Contrastive historical geography of “iku-kuru” and “yaru-kureru”

  • The Japanese Language Association of Korea
  • Abbr : JLAK
  • 2022, (73), pp.5-29
  • DOI : 10.14817/jlak.2022.73.5
  • Publisher : The Japanese Language Association Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > Japanese Language and Literature
  • Published : September 20, 2022

INOUE, Fumio 1

1동경외국어대학

Irregular Papers

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we survey contrastive studies of the phenomena called directionality and/or subjectivity (subjective construal) in Japanese. The directionality of words expressing the relationship between the speaker and the listener, such as “iku/kuru” (go/come), and giving and receiving “yaru/kureru” (give(speaker)/give(listener)) and “te itadaku” (have favor of being given) is also connected with honorifics, and has been pointed out by many researchers, under various labels such as subjectivity, subjective expression and subjective construal (understanding). Broadly speaking, the expression of subjectivity corresponds to Bühler's appealing (Apell) function, which is also related to the use of deictic language. Taking cues from the directionality and subjectivity of giving and receiving expressions and benefactives, we can grasp trends common to various phenomena mentioned above. Taking into account the dialect differences and the history of language, we confirm that these phenomena developed in the later historical stages of the Japanese language. In the second article (Part 2), we take into account various languages such as English and Korean, and see if there is change in a certain direction (drift) in directionality and subjectivity. We also examine the validity of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and extend our examination to economics within language and expand the field of economic linguistics.

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