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A study of auxiliary verb ‘mu’ in a glossed reading of Lunyu (the Analects) in Middle age Japan

  • The Japanese Language Association of Korea
  • Abbr : JLAK
  • 2023, (78), pp.123-143
  • DOI : 10.14817/jlak.2023.78.123
  • Publisher : The Japanese Language Association Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > Japanese Language and Literature
  • Received : September 25, 2023
  • Accepted : November 21, 2023
  • Published : December 20, 2023

Mi young Oh 1

1숭실대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper first dealt with discussions in the previous researches about the meaning of auxiliary verb ‘むmu’, which conveys estimation. It then analyzed 146 examples of the auxiliary verb in a glossed reading of Mubatsu-bon Lunyu Jijie (volume 1-10) which was the standard glossed reading of the Analects in Middle age Japan. It further categorized and analyzed the examples based on 4 kinds of mood in the so-called “School grammar of Japan“ (Classical Japanese grammar, referred to as “Literary grammar”), i.e. dubitative, volitional, inducing or mandatory, and periphrastic mood. There are 67 examples categorized as dubitative mood, and 43 of them are used as a rhetorical question. In order to convey didactic contents effectively, rhetorical questions are frequently used. Generally speaking, “rhetorical question” tends to co-occur with a concealed question form, however in all 67 examples, the auxiliary verb ‘mu’ is used in a rhetorical question in 5 examples, of which 2 examples are used with an adverb. There are 44 examples that are classified as volitional mood. Among them, 29 examples indicate the will of the 1st person, while 1 example indicates the will of the listener, and 14 examples indicate the will of a 3rd or unspecified person. Also examples of volitional mood partly include the case that indicates a desire of the subject. None of the examples are classified as inducing or mandatory mood. There are 32 examples categorized as periphrastic mood, of which 26 examples are used for the rentai-kei (attributive) modification, but 6 examples are not. Some of the examples that are used for the attributive modification may be regarded as “assumptive mood”. In previous studies, “periphrastic mood” is not considered as a function of ‘mu’. However, this paper makes it clear that a category of “periphrastic mood” is necessary. Finally, 3 examples are not sorted into the 4 categories in the “School Grammar”. These examples commonly include ‘將’ in original text of the Analects, which is read in the glossed reading ‘まさに masani…んとす tosu (allomorph of ‘mu’)’. This word is deemed to indicate the ‘prospective aspect’. However, it does not mean that all phrases including ‘將’ indicate this aspect. The auxiliary verb ‘mu’ has various meanings, which has been pointed out in earlier works. Hence, the teaching of classical Japanese must not only provide education about basic meaning categories, but also provide knowledge about atypical functions of auxiliary verbs to students.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.