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Stem inalterability in Japonic

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 30. Oktober 2025
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Abstract

Three case studies from Japanese and Ryukyuan are presented in support of the generalization that, in the course of grammaticalization of an innovative verbal construction, vowel-stem forms will resist reductive phonological processes that apply to consonant-stem forms. Given that the constructions of the case studies are based on the verbal Ren’yookei, this differential susceptibility to phonological reduction is attributed to the fact that vowel-stem Ren’yookei instantiate the structure [[X]s]w (s = stem, w = word) and are therefore isolation forms. A Stem Inalterability Condition is proposed to capture the observed generalization, and that condition is shown to account for the restriction of verbal onbin before t-initial suffixes to consonant-stems in both Japanese and Ryukyuan and to provide a natural understanding of the r-zero alternation of the Old Japanese Rentaikei and Izenkei suffixes.


Corresponding author: Brent de Chene, Waseda University (Emeritus), Tokyo, Japan, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

I am deeply indebted to three JJL reviewers for comments that have led to many improvements; remaining errors are my responsibility.

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Received: 2024-03-06
Accepted: 2025-01-30
Published Online: 2025-10-30
Published in Print: 2025-11-25

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Heruntergeladen am 28.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jjl-2025-2010/pdf?lang=de
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