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Japanese subject markers in linguistic change: A quantitative analysis of data spanning 90 years and its theoretical implications

  • Satoshi Nambu EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 31, 2019

Abstract

Based on a statistical analysis of a corpus data from the period of 1915–2005, this article discusses two variants for a subject marker in Japanese, and argues that it is a case of linguistic change in progress. While representing effects of three linguistic factors on the use of the variants, the chronological observation of each factor revealed that this phenomenon demonstrates the Constant Rate Effect. The quantitative data also provides firm evidence for effects of other independent diachronic changes on the current phenomenon, pushing the change further by shrinking the linguistic environment for the dying-out variant. Dissecting the relationship between those diachronic changes and the current phenomenon in a quantitative manner, the findings of the study reveal that the two competing hypotheses in theoretical syntax properly capture the essential syntactic properties of the phenomenon in the contemporary Japanese and the discrepancy of the two accounts is attributable to their data reflecting a different stage of its ongoing change.

The abbreviations used in the glosses and graphs are

ACC

accusative

ACOP

adjectival copula

ADN

adnominal

C/COMP

complementizer

CP

complementizer phrase

D

determinate

DAT

dative

DP

determinate phrase

ETOP

emphatic topic

EVID

evidential

GEN

genitive

GER

gerund

HON

honorific

INF

infinitive

N

nominal feature

NOM

nominative

NML

nominalizer

NP

noun phrase

PER

perfective

PRS

present

PST

past

STAT

stative

T

tense

TP

tense phrase

TOP

topic

VP

verb phrase

v

little verb

vP

little verb phrase

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Published Online: 2019-05-31
Published in Print: 2019-09-25

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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