1
Tōkyō Nau: A Syntactic Analysis of Sentence-final Temporal
Markers Used in Japanese Internet Slang
Leiden University
MA Asian Studies (120 EC): Japanese Studies Wessel Johan Alexander Konstantinov
s1252372
Date: July 1, 2019
Supervisor: Dr. Wataru Uegaki Word count: 9147
2
Table of contents
Chapter 1: Topic introduction...3
1.1. Introduction...3
1.2. Organization of the thesis...7
Chapter 2: Methodology...8
2.1. Theoretical background...8
2.2. Methodology...15
Chapter 3: The use of sentence-final temporal markers in Netspeak...17
3.1. About Netspeak and its domains……...17
3.2. The meaning of nau, wazu, wiru etc...18
3.3. Similarity to other syntactic categories...36
Chapter 4: Agreement...42
4.1. About agreement...42
4.2. Agreement with silent verbal predicates...47
Chapter 5: Conclusion...53
5.1. Conclusion...53
List of abbreviations used in glosses...55
3
Chapter 1: Topic introduction
1.1. IntroductionLanguages are known for being in a continuous process of change. For example, new words and phrases are introduced, whereas others fall into disuse. Different ways of spelling certain words are adopted and new grammatical patterns gradually emerge. Changes like these occur in the course of time and can be so numerous that they contribute to the production and recognition of a new variety of a language. An example of this is Netspeak, a linguistic medium associated with the Internet, which displays features that make it distinct from spoken and written language (Crystal 2006, 272). This variety also exists in Japanese, a language which has been considerably influenced by English. Some relatively recent borrowings from English that can be found in Japanese Netspeak include: nau ‘now’, wazu ‘was’, wiru ‘will’, dan ‘done’, sutiru ‘still’ and agō ‘ago’. At first glance, these words seem to be ordinary lexical items just like other English loanwords found in Japanese. However, the way they are used suggests that there may be some form of innovation in the grammatical domain beyond just the borrowing of lexical items. For example, Kinsui (2010, 71) notes that these expressions are used at the end of a sentence to indicate when a certain event takes place and illustrates this by using the following examples:
(1) Chikatetsu nau. subway now
‘I’m now on the subway.’
(2) Kōnaien-ga ita-ku-te shini-sō nau. mouth sore-NOM painful-PRED.be-CVB die-EVID now ‘My mouth sore is so painful I feel like dying now.’
In this way, nau (and the other expressions) can provide temporal information in the absence of a verbal predicate. In addition to this, Nishioka (2019, 211) mentions that nau, wazu and wiru have become part of the tense system of the Japanese verb ‘to be’ and that they may indicate a paradigm shift as follows:
4
Table 1 - a paradigm shift from aspect to tense
(Nishioka 2019, ibid.) It could be said that the expressions are semantically close to temporal adverbs, as they are used as time markers1. I will come back to this point in chapter 3.
Within the field of Japanese syntax, topics that have been studied over many years include “sentence types and their interactions with grammatical verbal categories, grammatical relations (topic, subject, etc.), transitivity, nominalization, grammaticalization, voice (passives and causatives), word order (subject, scrambling, numeral quantifier, configurationality), case marking (ga/no conversion, morphology and syntax), modification (adjectives, relative clause), and structure and interpretation (modality, negation, prosody, ellipsis)” (Shibatani and Kageyama 2017, xii-xiii). However, not much light has been shed on the above-mentioned expressions. I will refer to these as sentence-final temporal markers. These markers display a puzzling feature, as they semantically function as temporal adverbs, but syntactically behave as sentence-final particles, which I will demonstrate in later chapters. This leads to the core question: How can the sentence-final temporal markers nau, wazu, wiru, dan, sutiru and agō semantically function as temporal adverbs although syntactically behaving like sentence-final particles?
In the standard syntactic analysis of aspectual/temporal adverbs, they are merged with the intermediate projection of tense, T’, which means that they take up the position of the specifier of TP (Koizumi 2017, 555). The following examples illustrate this point:
1 Strictly speaking, sutiru functions semantically as an aspectual adverb instead of a temporal
adverb, which makes it distinct from the other expressions. However, both types are classed as TP adverbs.
5 (3)
a. Mada tabe-te i-nai. yet eat-CVB be-NEG ‘I haven’t eaten yet.’
b. TP DP T’ proi AdvP T’ mada NegP T -i vP Neg -na DP v’ ti VP v tabete i (4)
a. Kinō tenisu-o shi-ta. yesterday tennis-ACC do-PST ‘We played tennis yesterday.’
6 b. TP DP T’ proi AdvP T’ Kinō vP T -ta DP v’ ti VP v DP V tenisu o shi
However, the expressions under consideration seem to behave as sentence-final particles, which typically sit outside a TP. The following example illustrates the typical syntactical position of sentence-final particles like yo:
(5)
a. Nanimo shi-na-katta yo. nothing do-NEG-PST SFP ‘I didn’t do anything.’
7 b. SAP2 TP SA yo DP T’ proi NegP T -katta vP Neg -na DP v’ ti VP v DP V nanimo shi
How could this dilemma be reconciled? Can the sentence-final temporal markers provide temporal information outside a TP or do they actually sit inside a TP and just appear to be at the right edge on the surface? With these questions in mind, I will attempt to motivate a syntactic analysis of these sentence-final temporal markers, which will be in line with hypotheses on the split CP system (Rizzi 1997).
1.2. Organization of the thesis
In chapter 2, I will give an overview of the theoretical framework and introduce the methodology. In chapter 3, I will provide a general background of Netspeak, go over various examples in which the expressions under consideration are used and demonstrate that they belong to the same syntactic category as sentence-final particles by carrying out substitution tests. Next, based on the insights made in chapter 3, I will focus on their consequences in chapter 4. Finally, I will present the conclusion in the final chapter.
2 The Speech Act projection (SAP) specifies illocutionary force and can be headed by the
8
Chapter 2: Methodology
2.1. Theoretical backgroundThis section presents an overview of the syntactic structure of the Japanese right
periphery based on the cartographic framework. The approach based on this framework aims to draw maps as fine-grained as possible of the clause structure by identifying different types of positions (Belletti 2004, 5). Rizzi (1997, 281) notes that the structural representation of a clause consists of:
“1. The lexical layer, headed by the verb, the structural layer in which theta assignment takes place.
2. The inflectional layer, headed by functional heads corresponding to concrete or abstract morphological specifications on the verb, and responsible for the licensing of argumental features such as case and agreement.
3. The complementizer layer, typically headed by a free functional morpheme, and hosting topics and various operator-like elements such as interrogative and relative pronouns, focalized elements, etc.”
Under the cartographic analysis, the complementizer layer, or CP-layer, is split into multiple projections for complementizers, topic and focus elements. The structure of the CP-layer proposed by Rizzi (1997, 297) is as follows3:
(6) [Force [ (Top(ic)*) [ Foc(us) [ (Top(ic)*) [ Fin(ite) [TP] ]]]]]
Force denotes the clausal type, which could be “a question, a declarative, an exclamative, a relative, a comparative, an adverbial of a certain kind, etc.” (Rizzi 1997, 283). Finiteness on the other hand refers to the property of being marked for tense, agreement or both and specifies finite and non-finite clauses.
In Japanese, quotative to, interrogative ka and the nominalizer no are the major complementizers. As Saito and Haraguchi (2012, 107) illustrate in (7), these complementizers can co-occur in a single embedded clause, which represents the cartographic structure in (8).
(7) Tarō-wa [CP kare-no imōto-ga soko-ni i-ta (no) ka (to)]
Tarō-TOP he-GEN sister-NOM there-LOC be-PST no ka to
3 Rizzi (1997, 297) uses IP (Inflection Phrase) to specify the functional category that is selected by
9 minna-ni tazune-ta.
everyone-DAT ask-PST
‘Tarō asked everyone if his sister was there.’
(8) [CP... [CP... [CP... Finite (no)] Force (ka)] Report (to)] (Saito and Haraguchi 2012,
107)
In this structure, to takes up the head position within Report and occupies a higher position in the CP-layer than Force, as to appears to the right of the interrogative complementizer ka. In line with the structure proposed by Rizzi (1997, 297), the complementizer no, which is the head of FinP, appears lower than Force.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the sentence-final particle yo heads a Speech Act projection (SAP), which specifies illocutionary force. In addition to yo, Saito and Haraguchi (2012, 121) treat the sentence-final particles wa, ne and na as speech act particles, which head SAP and represent the following hierarchical structure:
(9) [[[ [...] Assertion (wa) ] Assertion (yo) ] Soliciting Response (ne/na) ]
This structure shows that SAP can be split into multiple projections to account for different speech acts. Wa, the lowest in the hierarchy, is the only particle, which takes a TP as its complement to form an SAP (Saito and Haraguchi 2012, 118), as illustrated below:
(10)
a. Ribingu-de terebi-o mi-ta wa. living room-LOC television-ACC watch-PST SFP ‘I watched TV in the living room.’
10 b. SAP TP SA wa DP T’ proi vP T -ta DP v’ ti VP v PP V’ ribingu de DP V terebi o mi
On the other hand, the other particles do not have selectional relations with their complements and merge with SAP (Saito and Haraguchi 2012, ibid.), as illustrated in (11) and (12).
(11)
a. Mō kaer-u no ka yo. already go home-PRS NMZ INT SFP ‘Are you going home already?’
11 b. SAP ForceP SA yo FinP Force ka TP Fin no DP T’ proi AdvP T’ mō vP T -u DP v’ ti VP v kaer (12)
a. Sugo-ku tanoshi-i yo ne. great-ADV pleasant-PRED.be.PRS SFP SFP ‘It’s really fun, isn’t it?’
12 b. SAP SA’ SA ne TP SA yo DP T’ pro PredP T -i AP Pred Ø AdvP A sugoku tanoshi
Based on the above-mentioned information, it could be said that the syntactic structure for the right periphery in Japanese looks like this:
(13) [[[[[ TP ] Fin ] Force ] Speech Act ] Report]
Finally, I will consider the notion of modality and how insights on this are captured in the cartographic framework, as there are various modal elements in Japanese which occur in the sentence final position. These elements are darō ‘(I) guess’, kamoshirenai ‘might’, rashii ‘likely, seem’, nasai ‘polite imperative’ and -yō ‘volitional’ and they express the speaker’s attitude toward the content expressed in a proposition (Hasegawa 2017, 374). Specifically, there are two categories of modality: epistemic modality and discourse or speech act modality. The former expresses the speaker’s understanding toward a proposition, whereas the latter denotes the speech act type and the discourse function of a proposition (Nitta 1991, 18-19). They also differ in terms of syntactic behavior, as epistemic modal elements can be followed by the coordinating conjunction ga ‘but’, but speech act modal elements cannot, as illustrated by Nitta (1991, 20) in (14)-(16).
13
(14) Ashita-wa ame-ni nar-u darō ga, ensoku-wa tomorrow-TOP rain-DAT become-PRS MOD but, excursion-TOP okona-ware-ru darō.
hold-PASS-PRS MOD
‘It will probably rain tomorrow, but the excursion will be held, I guess.’
(15) *Ashita-wa ame-ni nar-u darō ne ga, ensoku-wa tomorrow-TOP rain-DAT become-PRS MOD SFP but excursion-TOP okona-ware-ru darō.
hold-PASS-PRS MOD
’It will probably rain tomorrow, won’t it? But the excursion will be held, I guess.’ (16) *Shizuka-ni shi-ro ga, nakanaka shizuka-ni nar-anai.
quiet-ADV do-IMP but easily quiet-ADV become-NEG ‘Be quiet, but you just won’t keep quiet.’
This is due to the fact that speech act modality is connected to the main clause, where its speech act function is specified, whereas epistemic modality is independent of the way the sentence functions in the given discourse and thus can be combined with another sentence (Hasegawa 2017, 375).
Modal elements such as darō head a Modal Phrase (MP), which sits between Force and TP (Koizumi 1993, 409-410). The syntactic tree structure for MP looks as follows: (17)
a. Nanika i-i koto-ga at-ta (no) darō. something good-ATT.be.PRS thing-NOM be-PST (NMZ) MOD ‘Something good must have happened.’
14 b. MP FinP M darō TP Fin no DP T’ Nanika ii koto gai vP T -ta DP v’ ti VP v at (18)
a. Konna-ni oishi-i mono-ga hoka-ni ar-u such-ADV delicious-ATT.be.PRS thing-NOM else-ADV be-PRS no darō ka.
NMZ MOD INT
15 b. ForceP MP Force ka FinP M darō TP Fin no DP T’
Konna ni oishii mono gai vP T
-u DP v’ ti VP v AdvP V hoka ni ar
In accordance with the above treated theoretical background and Hashimoto (2015, 23), I will assume the syntactic structure of the right periphery in Japanese to look like this: (19) [[[[[TP ] Fin ] M ] Force ] SA ] Report ] (Hashimoto 2015, ibid.) (no) (darō) (ka) (SFP) (to)
2.2. Methodology
In order to find out what syntactic categories commonly co-occur with nau, wazu, wiru, dan, sutiru and agō, I collected a total of 1045 tweets containing each of these temporal markers from Twitter by using the Twitter Advanced Search engine. This enabled me to derive common patterns concerning their usage. Next, I carried out multiple substitution tests in order to gain a better understanding of the syntactic distribution of the temporal markers in question. These tests are based on the following insight:
“If two elements X and Y share the same syntactic features, then in every grammatical sentence that contains X you can replace X by Y (and vice versa) and the sentence remains grammatical.” (Koeneman and Zeijlstra 2017, chap. 1)
16 and the sentence-final temporal markers.
17
Chapter 3: The use of sentence-final temporal markers in Netspeak
In this chapter I will first give a general overview of Netspeak. Then, I will go over various examples in which the sentence-final temporal markers are used and demonstrate that they are similar to sentence-final particles in terms of syntactic distribution.3.1. About Netspeak and its domains
Languages are constantly changing as new words are introduced. In Japanese, English words are borrowed to fill a lexical gap, to achieve a kind of special effect by substituting native equivalents, and to make them function as euphemisms (Rebuck 2002, 54). The borrowing and coining of new words is also reflected in the use of the Internet and social media. Another phenomenon which has been occurring is the assignment of a different meaning to existing vocabulary. For example, the word saba, which means ‘mackerel’, is used on the Internet to mean ‘server’, as it resembles the Japanese loanword sābā, another word for ‘server’. Because of changes like these, a distinct language variety with its own domain has come into existence and this variety is known as Netspeak. As for its linguistic character, Baron (2002, 23) notes that “computer mediated communication can be thought of as a kind of linguistic centaur, incorporating features from both traditional writing and face-to-face discourse but ending up being more than a simple amalgam of the two.” Furthermore, Crystal (2006, 11-15) identifies seven broad situations for the use of Netspeak, which include: e-mail, synchronous and asynchronous chatgroups, virtual worlds, the World Wide Web, instant messaging and blogging. Blogs are especially of relevance, since the sentence-final temporal markers are mainly used in this domain. They also occur with considerable frequency on Twitter. According to Wang (2014, 1396), this is known as “a social networking site and microblogging service in which users can update current life status in short posts, of 140 characters or less, known as tweets. Launched in 2006, Twitter has become the largest and best-known microblogging platform in the United States and the fastest growing social platform on the planet.” It has also gained substantial popularity in Japan. This is reflected by the fact that there are over 45 million active users, and globally, about 20 percent of all tweets are in Japanese (Ishida 2019). Tweets in Japanese are restricted to 140 characters, whereas languages like English have a 280 character limit. Because of this, it is plausible that Twitter users started using sentence-final temporal markers as a means to reduce the character count when tweeting about various events in daily life. This is in line with the main characteristics of Netspeak, which allows for brief and compact language by abbreviating and omitting words.
18 3.2. The meaning of nau, wazu, wiru etc.
In the sentence final position, nau is used to convey that an action or event is taking place right now or has just taken place and commonly co-occurs with the following categories: NP
(20) Kazoku-de doraibu nau! family-INS drive now
‘I’m going on a drive with the family!’ (21) Karuizawa nau!
Karuizawa now
‘I’m now in Karuizawa!’
(22) Shō-chan-to pankēki nau! Shō-DIM-COM pancake now ‘I’m eating pancakes with Shō-chan!’ (23) Sūpā kinchō nau.
super tense now ‘I’m feeling super tense.’ TP
(24) Haneda-(ni) mukat-te (i)-ru nau. Haneda-ALL go-CVB be-PRS now ‘I’m now heading to Haneda.’
(25) Nagoya-(ni) tsui-ta nau!! Nagoya-ALL arrive-PST now ‘I just arrived in Nagoya!!’
(26) Ko-no kyoku-(o) kii-te (i)-ru nau. this-ATT song-ACC listen-CVB be-PRS now ‘I’m listening to this song.’
(27) Ne-tai kedo hiru-ni ne-te (i)-ita kara sleep-DES but daytime-DAT sleep-CVB be-PST CNJ
19 ne-re-nai nau.
sleep-POT-NEG now
‘I want to sleep but I can’t because I slept during the day.’ AP
(28) Samu-i nau. cold-PRED.be.PRS now ‘I’m feeling cold.’
(29) Denchū-to shōmenshōtotsu shi-ta nau. Ita-i nau. telephone pole-COM collide head-on-PST now painful-PRED.be.PRS now Hazukashi-i nau.
ashamed-PRED.be.PRS now
‘I just bumped into a telephone pole. It hurts. I feel embarrassed.’ (30) Kaze-o hii-te shimat-te tsura-i nau. cold-ACC catch-CVB NVOL-CVB hard-PRED.be.PRS now ‘I’m having a hard time because of the cold.’
(31) Netsu-(ga) sagat-te genki nau! fever-NOM go down-CVB healthy now
‘My fever has gone down and I’m feeling good now!’
(32) Moru keisan-ga deki-na-kute ashita-no tesuto-ga mole calculation-NOM can-NEG-CVB tomorrow-ATT test-NOM fuan nau.
anxious now
‘I’m feeling anxious about tomorrow’s test, because I can’t do mole calculations.’ EvidP4
(33) Densha-no naka-de naki-sō nau. train-GEN inside-LOC cry-EVID now
4 Evidential markers like sō ‘be likely’ display syntactic behavior that is similar to that of nominal
adjectives when they are attached to an AP or VP. However, contrary to nominal adjectives, they head an Evidential Phrase (EvidP), which “indicates the nature of the speaker’s evidence for the truth of propositions.” (Nishigauchi 2014, 175)
20 ‘I’m about to cry in the train.’
(34) Sūpu-(o) koboshi-te shima-i morashi-ta-mitai nau. soup-ACC spill-CVB NVOL-CVB wet-PST-EVID now ‘I accidentally spilled some soup and it now looks like I wet myself.’ AdvP
(35) Yar-u koto-ga takusan nau! do-PRS thing-NOM much now ‘I have a lot of things to do now!’ (36) Furo-ni hait-te yukkuri nau. bath-ALL get in-CVB leisurely now ‘I’m having a leisurely bath.’
(37) Kauntodaun-made ato sukoshi nau. countdown-TERM next little now
‘There is now little time left until the countdown.’ PP
(38) Ōsaka-e nau. Osaka-ALL now
‘I’m on my way to Osaka.’ (39) Ibento-wa kyō-made nau. event-TOP today-TERM now ‘The event is now until today.’
(40) Sutaba-de benkyō-to shōshi-te shiro-no sutoroberī Starbucks-LOC study-QUOT pretend-CVB white-ATT strawberry
furapechīno-(o) non-de (i)-ru dake nau. frappuccino-ACC drink-CVB be-PRS only now
‘I’m only drinking a white strawberry frappuccino at Starbucks on the pretense of studying.’
21 (41) Sakki oki-ta bakari nau. just now get up-PST just now ‘I got up just now.’
SAP
(42) Sapporo-(ni) ki-te (i)-mas-u yo nau. Sapporo-ALL come-CVB be-POL-PRS SFP now ‘I’m now in Sapporo.’
(43) Waka-i onna-ga toot-ta ze nau. young-ATT.be.PRS woman-NOM pass-PST SFP now ‘Just now, a young woman passed by.’
(44) Yokosuga-ni muka-u tame-ni shinkansen-ni not-te Yokosuga-ALL head-PRS in order to Shinkansen-ALL get on-CVB (i)-ru zo nau!!
be-PRS SFP now
‘I’m now on board of the Shinkansen to go to Yokosuga!!’
Next, wazu, dan and agō are used to refer to actions or events that took place in the past. Wazu co-occurs with the following categories:
NP
(45) Basuke wazu. basketball PST ‘I played basketball.’
(46) Nyūyoku wazu. Kyō-wa i-i tenki da. bath PST today-TOP good-ATT.be.PRS COP ‘Just took a bath. It’s nice weather today.’
(47) Shinjuku wazu! Shinjuku PST ‘I went to Shinjuku!’
22 (48) Rāmen wazu.
ramen PST ‘I had ramen.’ TP
(49) Kami-(o) kit-ta wazu. hair-ACC cut-PST ‘I had my hair cut.’
(50) Jikka-kara nimotsu-(ga) todoi-ta wazu! parental home-ABL package-NOM be delivered-PST ‘A package has been delivered from my parents’ home!’ (51) Inoshishi-ni kam-are-ta wazu.
wild boar-DAT bite-PASS-PST ‘I got bitten by a wild boar.’
(52) Taichō-(o) kuzushi-te hokenshitsu-de ne-ta wazu. condition-ACC disturb-CVB sickroom-LOC sleep-PST ‘I didn’t feel well and lied down in the sickroom.’
AP
(53) Hanabi-(wa) sugo-k-at-ta wazu. fireworks-TOP fantastic-PRED-be-PST ‘The fireworks were fantastic.’
(54) Konya-no ofuro-wa kimochiyo-k-at-ta wazu. this evening-ATT bath-TOP pleasant-PRED-be-PST ‘This evening’s bath felt pleasant.’
(55) Riku-to gyūdon wazu. Uma-k-at-ta wazu. Riku-COM beef bowl PST delicious-PRED-be-PST ‘I had a beef bowl with Riku. It was delicious.’
(56) Budōame-(wa) oishi-k-at-ta wazu. candy-coated grapes-TOP delicious-PRED-be-PST
23 ‘The candy-coated grapes were delicious.’
(57) Heya-kara mie-ru hanabi-ga, omot-te (i)-ta yori room-ABL be visible-PRS fireworks-NOM think-CVB be-PST than kirei wazu.
beautiful PST
‘The fireworks that I could see from my room were even more beautiful than I had thought.’
(58) Kyō-no sūgaku-no shukudai-(wa) kantan wazu, today-ATT math-ATT homework-TOP easy PST ‘Today’s math homework was easy.’
EvidP
(59) Kareshi-ga kafun-de tsura-sō wazu. boyfriend-NOM pollen-CAUS tough-EVID PST ‘My boyfriend was suffering from pollen allergy.’ (60) Sapuraizu-(ga) seikō shi-ta-mitai wazu! surprise-NOM succeed-PST-EVID PST ‘It seemed the surprise was a success!’ AdvP
(61) Bīfushichū chotto wazu. beef stew little PST ‘I had a little beef stew.’ (62) Saori-to yuttari wazu. Saori-COM relaxed PST
‘I was having a relaxed time with Saori.’
(63) Danshi kōkōsei-ga ippai wazu. male high school student-NOM full PST ‘There was a crowd of male high school students.’
24 PP
(64) Oshare-na hashi-o watat-te onsen-e wazu. cool-ATT bridge-ACC cross-CVB hot spring-ALL PST ‘I crossed a cool bridge and visited a hot spring location.’
(65) 5-ji-kara 9-ji-made wazu. five o’clock-ABL nine o’clock-TERM PST ‘It was from five till nine o’clock.’
(66) Kyaku-wa oretachi dake wazu. customer-TOP we only PST ‘We were the only customers.’
(67) Odot-te bakari wazu. dance-CVB only PST ‘All I did was dance.’ SAP
(68) Hanabi-(o) mi-te ki-ta yo wazu. fireworks-ACC watch-CVB come-PST SFP PST ‘I watched the fireworks.’
(69) Atama-(ga) ita-k-at-ta kedo nomikai-(wa) head-NOM painful-PRED-be-PST but drinking party-TOP tanoshi-k-at-ta na wazu.
enjoyable-PRED-be-PST SFP PST
‘I had a headache but the drinking party was fun.’ (70) Saikō-ni oishi-k-at-ta wa wazu. best-ADV delicious-PRED-be-PST SFP PST ‘It was too delicious for words.’
25 Agō co-occurs with the same categories: NP
(71) Kitaku agō. homecoming PST ‘I just got home.’
(72) Bāchanchi agō. grandmother’s house PST
‘I was at my grandmother’s house.’ (73) Sutaba agō.
Starbucks PST ‘I went to Starbucks.’ (74) Dansuressun agō dance lesson PST
‘I followed a dance lesson.’ TP
(75) Furot-ta agō. Aianman 2 sutāto nau. take a bath-PST Iron Man 2 start now ‘I took a bath. Iron Man 2 is starting now.’
(76) Jikor-are-ta agō. Genki-ni iki-te (i)-ru have a traffic accident-PASS-PST vigorous-ADV live-CVB be-PRS kara yo-k-at-ta, yo-k-at-ta!
CNJ good-PRED-be-PST good-PRED-be-PST
‘I got involved in a traffic accident. I’m alive and well, so that’s a relief! (77) Nānmo na-k-at-ta agō.5
nothing non-existent-PRED-be-PST ‘There was absolutely nothing.’
5 In this sentence, nānmo is derived from nanimo ‘nothing’ by elongating the first vowel and
26
(78) Ura-chan-ni bōzasshi-no intabyū-(o) Facetime-de Ura-DIM-DAT a certain magazine-POSS interview-ACC Facetime-INS shi-te morat-ta agō.
do-CVB have-PST
‘I had Ura-chan do an interview for a certain magazine through Facetime.’ AP
(79) Tanoshi-k-at-ta agō. enjoyable-PRED-be-PST ‘It was enjoyable.’
(80) Pafe-(wa) oishi-k-at-ta agō. parfait-TOP delicious-PRED-be-PST ‘The parfait was delicious.’
(81) Yocchan-san-to hisabisa-(ni) a-e-te ureshi-k-at-ta agō. Yocchan-HON-COM long time-ADV meet-POT-CVB happy-PRED-be-PST ‘I was happy I could meet Yocchan after a long time.’
(82) Yat-te yo-k-at-ta agō! do-CVB good-PRED-be-PST ‘I’m glad I did it!’
(83) Shinjuku nau. Tonari-no hito-no kareishū-(wa) Shinjuku now next-ATT person-GEN old person smell-TOP kyōretsu agō.
strong PST
‘I’m now in Shinjuku. The person next to me had a strong old person smell.’ (84) Niji-ga kirei agō.
Rainbow-NOM beautiful PST ‘The rainbow was beautiful.’ EvidP
(85) Densha-de ne-sō agō. train-LOC sleep-EVID PST
27 ‘I almost fell asleep in the train.’
(86) Kafe-no tenin-san-ni hore-rare-ta-mitai agō. café-ATT employee-HON-DAT fall for-PASS-PST-EVID PST ‘The café employee seemed to have fallen for me.’
AdvP
(87) Murasaki Onsen-de sappari agō. Murasaki Onsen-LOC refreshed PST ‘I had a refreshing time at Murasaki Onsen.’
(88) BRIDGE-ni wakamono-ga takusan agō. BRIDGE-LOC young people-NOM much PST ‘There were a lot of young people at BRIDGE.’
(89) Rajio-de Rannawei-ga totsuzen nagare-te bikkuri agō. radio-LOC Runaway-NOM suddenly be played-CVB surprised PST ‘I was surprised that Runaway was suddenly played on the radio.’
PP
(90) Shūmatsu-ni honya-e agō! Weekend-ADV book store-ALL PST ‘I went to the book store during the weekend.’
(91) Daigaku-no yūjin-no kekkonshiki-de Takasaki-made agō. university-ATT friend-GEN wedding-CAUS Takasaki-TERM PST ‘I went to Takasaki for my university friend’s wedding.’
(92) Hana-(o) mi-ta dake agō. flower-ACC watch-PST only PST ‘I only looked at the flowers.’
(93) Yūigi-na uchiawase nado agō. significant-ATT advance arrangements etc. PST ‘I made significant advance arrangements and so forth.’
28 SAP
(94) Chari-(o) pakur-are-ta ze agō! bike-ACC steal-PASS-PST SFP PST ‘I had my bike stolen!’
(95) Kaisha-no otoire-ni i-tara, nanimonoka-ni denki-o company-GEN bathroom-LOC be-COND somebody-DAT light-ACC kes-are-te shima-i makkura-ni nat-ta turn off-PASS-CVB NVOL-CVB pitch-dark-ADV become-PST zo agō.
SFP PST
‘When I was in the company bathroom, someone turned off the light and it became pitch-dark.’
In contrast to wazu and agō, dan is relatively limited in terms of the syntactic categories it co-occurs with. This is illustrated by the following examples:
NP
(96) Shūron teishutsu dan. master’s thesis submission PST ‘I submitted my master’s thesis.’ (97) Tōkyō Tawā dan.
Tokyo Tower PST ‘I went to Tokyo Tower.’ (98) Tokuisaki-to ranchi dan. client-COM lunch PST ‘I had lunch with a client.’ (99) Musuko-to asaran dan. son-COM morning run PST ‘I did a morning run with my son.’
29 TP
(100) Sengetsu rekuchā & piano risaitaru-de Nikkei hōru-ni it-ta dan. last month lecture and piano recital-CAUS Nikkei hall-ALL go-PST ‘Last month, I went to Nikkei Hall because of a lecture and piano recital.’
(101) Toriaezu, kyō-wa owat-ta dan. Yappa tsukare-ta no ka, for the time being today-TOP end-PST after all be tired-PST NMZ INT
jidōteki-ni ohirune shi-ta dan. automatic-ADV take a nap-PST
‘For now, today is over. Perhaps because I was tired after all, I automatically took a nap’
(102) Seijaku-o motome-te Tōkyō-to Teien Bijutsukan-ni
silence-ACC search for-CVB Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum-ALL ki-ta dan.
come-PST
‘I came to the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum in search of silence.’ (103) Rapyuta-o hisashiburi-ni mi-ta dan.
Laputa-ACC long time-ADV watch-PST
‘I watched (the movie) Laputa for the first time in a long time.’ AP
(104) Koshi-(o) itame-ta-mama-de-no baito-wa
lower back-ACC hurt-PST-SUBR-INS-ATT part-time job-TOP kitsu-k-at-ta dan.
hard-PRED-be-PST
‘It was hard doing work while having lower back pain.’
(105) Kumamoto-no kyaba-wa yasu-ku-te hijō-ni Kumamoto-ATT hostess bar-TOP cheap-PRED.be-CVB extreme-ADV kuoriti-ga taka-k-at-ta dan.
quality-NOM high-PRED.be-CVB
30 (106) Tonjiru-(wa) uma-k-at-ta dan.
tonjiru-TOP delicious-PRED-be-PST ‘The tonjiru was delicious.’
(107) Kyō-wa muchakucha atsu-k-at-ta dan. today-TOP extremely hot-PRED-be-PST ‘It was extremely hot today.’
SAP
(108) Chotto dake shigoto shi-ta ze dan. little only work do-PST SFP PST ‘I only did a little bit of work.’
(109) Taoru-kei-(no) sentakumono-(o) hoshi-ta zo dan. towel-type-ATT laundry-ACC dry-PST SFP PST ‘I hung out the towel laundry to dry.’
Wiru indicates that an action or event will take place in the future and is preceded by the same categories as nau, wazu and agō:
NP
(110) Nagoya wiru. Nagoya FUT ‘I will go to Nagoya.’ (111) Tōhyō wiru.
vote FUT
‘I am going to vote.’ (112) Konchas! Haisha wiru! Hi dentist FUT
‘Hi! I’m going to the dentist!’ (113) Bbq wiru.
barbecue FUT
31 TP
(114) Rainen-wa yukata-(o) ki-ru wiru. next year-TOP yukata-ACC wear-NPST FUT ‘I’m going to wear a yukata next year.’
(115) T.I.-no arubamu-(o) getor-u wiru! T.I.-GEN album-ACC get-NPST FUT ‘I’m going to get T.I.’s album!
(116) Mat-te (i)-ru wiru. Ore-mo yopparai sutiru. wait-CVB be-NPST FUT I-too drunk still ‘I’ll be waiting. I’m also still drunk.’
(117) Benkyō su-ru wiru. study do-NPST FUT ‘I’m going to study.’ AP
(118) Konshū-wa meccha isogashi-i wiru. this week-TOP extremely busy-PRED.be.NPST FUT ‘I’m going to be extremely busy this week.’
(119) Totemo tanoshi-katta wazu. Kore-kara tanoshi-i wiru. very be pleasant-PST this-ABL pleasant-PRED.be.NPST FUT ‘It was great fun. It’s going to be fun after this.’
(120) Ashita baito-(wa) shindo-i wiru. tomorrow part-time job-TOP bothersome-PRED.be.NPST FUT ‘My part-time job is going to be a pain tomorrow.’
(121) Minna-ni a-e-tara ureshi-i wiru. everybody-DAT meet-POT-COND glad-PRED.be.NPST FUT ‘I will be glad to meet you all.’
(122) Daigakusei-ni nat-tara majime wiru. university student-DAT become-COND serious FUT
32
‘I will be serious once I am a university student.’ (123) Kyūkei-(wa) owari da. Yūutsu wiru. break-TOP end COP gloomy FUT ‘My break is over. I’m going to feel depressed.’ EvidP
(124) Kyō-wa kitaku deki-sou wiru. today-TOP going home can-EVID FUT ‘It looks like I can go home today.’
(125) Haya-ku yat-te mi-ta hō-ga i-i-to
soon-ADV do-CVB try-PST side-NOM good-PRED.be.PRS-QUOT susumetsuzuke-ta hito-ga yōyaku Twitter-(o)
keep recommending-PST person-NOM finally Twitter-ACC yar-u-mitai wiru.
do-PRS-EVID FUT
‘Apparently, the person, to whom I kept recommending he should try and use Twitter, is finally going to use it.’
AdvP
(126) Ashita-wa ouchi-de gorogoro wiru. tomorrow-TOP home-LOC hang around FUT ‘I’m going to hang around at home tomorrow.’ (127) Kyō-wa oshigoto takusan wiru. today-TOP work much FUT ‘I will have a lot of work today.’
(128) Kanojo-no ie wiru! Zutto wiru! girlfriend-GEN house FUT all the time FUT
‘I will be at my girlfriend’s house! I will stay there the whole time!’ PP
(129) Kanojo-to hanabitaikai-e wiru. girlfriend-COM fireworks display-ALL FUT
33
‘I’m going to an exhibition of fireworks with my girlfriend.’ (130) Oshigoto nau! 22-ji-made wiru!
work now ten o’clock-TERM FUT ‘I’m now at work! I’ll be there until ten o’clock!
(131) Sotsuron teishutsu kanryō nau. Ato happyō dake graduation thesis submission completion now next presentation only wiru.
FUT
‘I just finished submitting my graduation thesis. Next, I’ll only have to present it.’ (132) Seiyū-(ni) ik-u nado wiru.
Seiyu-ALL go-PRS etc. FUT ‘I’ll go to Seiyu and so forth.’ SAP
(133) Ima-kara Nagoya-kara Tōkyō-ni maimodor-u yo wiru. now-ABL Nagoya-ABL Tokyo-ALL return-NPST SFP FUT ‘I’m going back to Tokyo from Nagoya after this.’
(134) Yoshū-(o) yar-u ze wiru. preparation-ACC do-NPST SFP FUT ‘I’m going to prepare for class.’
(135) Sofa-de men-(o) susur-u zo wiru. sofa-LOC noodles-ACC slurp-NPST SFP FUT ‘I’m going to have noodles on the sofa.’
Finally, sutiru is used to indicate that an action or event is going on even at the moment of speaking.
NP
(136) Shokuba sutiru. workplace still ‘I am still at work.’
34 (137) Shinkansen nau. Futsukayoi sutiru. Shinkansen now hangover still
‘I’m in the Shinkansen. I’m still suffering from a hangover.’ (138) Mimikku-to Makudo sutiru.
Mimikku-COM McDonalds still ‘I’m still at McDonalds with Mimikku.’ (139) Asa-kara satsuei sutiru.
morning-ABL shooting still
‘I have been doing a shooting since morning.’ TP
(140) Sutiru tanoshin-de i-mas-u.6
still enjoy-CVB be-POL-PRS. ‘I am still enjoying myself.’
(141) Yōi-ga deki-te (i)-nai sutiru. preparations-NOM be completed-CVB be-NEG still ‘I’m still not ready.’
(142) Tsukarete (i)-nai sutiru. be tired-CVB be-NEG still ‘I’m not tired yet.’
(143) Ie-ni i-ru sutiru. house-LOC be-PRS still ‘I’m still at home.’
AP
(144) Mechakucha kubi-(ga) ita-i sutiru. extremely neck-NOM painful-PRED.be.PRS still ‘My neck still hurts a lot.’
35
Based on the above data, it is possible to summarize the co-occurrence of the various word classes and the sentence-final temporal markers in the following way:
Table 2 - the word classes which precede the sentence-final temporal markers
nau Wazu agō dan wiru sutiru
Nouns 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 Verbal nouns 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 Verbs 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 Adjectives 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 Nominal adjectives 〇 〇 〇 － 〇 － Evidential markers 〇 〇 〇 － 〇 － Adverbs 〇 〇 〇 － 〇 － Postpositions 〇 〇 〇 － 〇 － Sentence-final particles 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 － Case particles － － － － － － Conjunctive particles － － － － － － Adverbial particles 〇 〇 〇 － 〇 －
The sentence-final temporal markers, with the exception of sutiru, are quite similar in terms of the syntactic categories they are compatible with. However, it is curious that dan, which is used in the same meaning as wazu and agō, is incompatible with certain categories that can co-occur with nau, wazu, agō and wiru. What accounts for the fact that dan differs in this way from the other sentence-final temporal markers? Although
36
there exists a slight variation in compatibility with other syntactic categories, the meaning and usage of the sentence-final temporal markers seem to suggest that they belong to a unified system of tense, in which wazu, dan and agō represent the past, nau the recent past and present, and wiru the future. In turn, this system is compatible with lexical categories such as nouns and verbs and functional ones such as sentence-final particles. Based on its meaning, sutiru does not seem to fit in this system, although it is similar to the other markers with regard to syntactic distribution. However, the fact that it is only compatible with nouns, verbal nouns, verbs and adjectives may indicate that it belongs to another group of words in terms of its semantic function. Since it is used in the same meaning as the aspectual adverb mada ‘still, yet’, it could be said that sutiru is a sentence-final aspectual marker, which falls within the same syntactic category of the other markers, but does not belong to the aforementioned unified system of tense.
3.3. Similarity to other syntactic categories
According to Iwasaki (2013, 57), the major word classes in Japanese are nouns, nominal adjectives, adjectives, and verbs, whereas the minor word classes consist of adverbs, conjunctions, adnouns, auxiliaries, the copula, particles, affixes, and interjections. Furthermore, particles can be subcategorized into four types: case particles, sentence-final particles, adverbial particles, and conjunctive particles (Hasegawa 2014, 70). Based on their morphological form, it could be easily said that the sentence-final temporal markers do not belong to the syntactic category of verbs and adjectives, since they do not take various conjugational endings like the non-past tense ending -(r)u and the past tense ending -ta/da. This means that the following forms do not occur:
(145)
a. *nau-ru / *nau-ta / *na-u / *nat-ta b.*wazu-ru / *wazu-ta / *waz-u c.*wi-ru /*wi-ta / *wir-u / *wit-ta d.*dan-u / *dan-da
e.*suti-ru / *suti-ta / *sutir-u / *sutit-ta f.*ago-u / *agot-ta / *agō-ru / *agō-ta (146)
a. *nau-i7 / *nau-ku-na-i / *nau-kat-ta
37 b.*wazu-i / *wazu-ku-na-i / *wazu-kat-ta c. *wiru-i / *wiru-ku-na-i / *wiru-kat-ta d. *dan-i / *dan-ku-na-i / *dan-kat-ta e. *sutiru-i / *sutiru-ku-na-i / *sutiru-kat-ta f. *agō-i / *agō-ku-na-i / *agō-kat-ta
On the other hand, some data seem to suggest that they can syntactically behave like (adjectival) nouns, as the following examples demonstrate:
(147) Nau-wa Fukuoka, ashita-wa Tōkyō. now-TOP Fukuoka tomorrow-TOP Tokyo ‘I’m now in Fukuoka and I will be in Tokyo tomorrow.’ (148) Wazu-wa Saga, nau-wa Ōita.
PST-TOP Saga now-TOP Oita ‘I was in Saga and I’m now in Oita.’ (149) Ryūgaku wiru-na hito-tachi studying abroad FUT-ATT person-PL ‘People who will study abroad’
Nouns in Japanese are known for taking the topic marker wa and adjectival nouns require -na in order to modify nouns that follow them. In this way, the temporal markers could be said to possess nominal properties. However, since the frequency of the temporal markers placed in the sentence final position is considerably higher, I will continue to focus on this usage and exclude the non-sentence-final uses from the scope of this thesis. Another category to consider is the class of postpositions. They are known for being placed after nouns, for being unable to stand independently and they tend to be phonetically short. However, the main difference between postpositions and the sentence-final temporal markers is that the former can take the topic marker wa when placed after a noun, whereas the latter cannot. This is illustrated by the following examples:
(150) Uchi-de-wa home-LOC-TOP
meaning (‘trendy, in’) and origin of time, it seems unrelated to the way nau is used. Therefore, nau does not take the non-past tense ending -i to express the meaning described in section 3.2.
38 ‘At home’ (151) Gakkō-e-wa school-ALL-TOP ‘To school’ (152) Yama-kara-wa mountain-ABL-TOP ‘From the mountain’ (153) Goji-made-wa
five o’clock-TERM-TOP ‘Until five o’clock’ (154) *Uchi nau-wa home now-TOP (155) *Gakkō wazu-wa school PST-TOP (156) *Yama wiru-wa mountain FUT-TOP (157) *Goji dan-wa five o’clock PST-TOP (158) *Uchi sutiru-wa home still-TOP (159) *Gakkō agō-wa school PST-TOP
However, substituting sentence-final particles for the temporal markers leads to the following results:
39 (160) Kaer-u zo.
go home-PRS SFP ‘I am going home.’
(161) Basu-ga ki-ta wa. (with rising intonation) bus-NOM come-PST SFP
‘The bus has come.’
(162) Ashita yasum-u no. (with falling intonation)8
tomorrow take day off-PRS SFP ‘I am going to take a day off tomorrow.’ (163) Machigaidenwa ka. (with falling intonation)9
wrong number INT ‘So it is a wrong number.’ (164) Mada futsukayoi ne. still hangover SFP
‘You are still hung-over, aren’t you?’ (165) Kaet-ta yo.
go home-PST SFP ‘He has gone home.’ (166) Kaer-u nau. go home-PRS now ‘I am going home now.’ (167) Basu-ga ki-ta wazu. bus-NOM come-PST
‘The bus came.’
8 When pronounced with a falling intonation, a sentence ending with no is declarative, but it can be
turned into a question by pronouncing it with a rising intonation.
9 With a rising intonation, the particle ka turns a sentence into a question, but it can also be used
with a falling intonation when “newly acquired information is not totally incorporated into the speaker’s conceptual world.” (Hasegawa 2014, 293-294)
40 (168) Ashita yasum-u wiru. tomorrow take day off-PRS FUT ‘I will take a day off tomorrow.’ (169) Machigaidenwa dan.
wrong number PST
‘I dialed the wrong number.’ (170) Mada futsukayoi sutiru. still hangover still ‘I am still hung-over.’ (171) Kaet-ta agō. go home-PST ‘I got home.’
Although the meaning of the sentences completely changes, these are clear instances in which sentence-final particles can be replaced by the sentence-final temporal markers without losing grammaticality. This shows that they are similar in terms of syntactic distribution. However, unlike sentence-final particles, the sentence-final temporal markers do not carry illocutionary force. This means that they do not head a Speech Act projection, but another projection, which takes up a similar position as SAP within the cartographic structure. Also, since the sentence-final temporal markers have a syntactic distribution similar to sentence-final particles, it could be said that they are outside TP. This also allows them to take scope over the rest of the clause. As the examples in the previous chapters have illustrated, TP is headed by either the nonpast tense morpheme -(r)u or the past tense morpheme -ta. These morphemes determine the tense of a predicate, as the following examples show:
(172) Haneda-(ni) mukat-te (i)-ru nau. Haneda-ALL go-CVB be-PRS now ‘I’m heading to Haneda.’
(173) Jikka-kara nimotsu-(ga) todoi-ta wazu! parental home-ABL package-NOM be delivered-PST ‘A package has been delivered from my parents’ home!’
41
(174) Ura-chan-ni bōzasshi-no intabyū-(o) Facetime-de Ura-DIM-DAT a certain magazine-POSS interview-ACC Facetime-INS shi-te morat-ta agō.
do-CVB have-PST
‘I had Ura-chan do an interview for a certain magazine through Facetime.’ (175) Sengetsu rekuchā & piano risaitaru-de Nikkei hōru-ni it-ta dan. last month lecture and piano recital-CAUS Nikkei hall-ALL go-PST ‘Last month, I went to Nikkei Hall because of a lecture and piano recital.’ (176) Rainen-wa yukata-(o) ki-ru wiru.
next year-TOP yukata-ACC wear-NPST FUT ‘I’m going to wear a yukata next year.’
(177) Mada futsukayoi sutiru. still hangover still ‘I am still hung-over.’
Even without the use of sentence-final temporal markers, it is clear what the tense and the meaning of the above sentences are. This then raises the question how the temporal markers actually function. The above-mentioned data suggest that there is an agreement relation between the conjugational endings on verbs and adjectives on the one hand and the sentence-final temporal markers on the other. This relation is similar to the coherence in temporal features between the predicate and temporal adverbs. This is reflected by the fact that the non-past endings -(r)u and -i co-occur with nau and wiru, whereas the past ending (-kat)ta mainly co-occurs with wazu, agō and dan. In this way, the sentence-final temporal markers reflect the respective tenses. In other words, these expressions are tense agreement markers and head an agreement projection, which mainly selects for TP as its complement. I will refer to this as a Tense Agreement projection (AgrTP).
42
Chapter 4: Agreement
This chapter will focus on the consequences of the insights presented in the previous chapter. I will start by exploring the notion of agreement and the way this relates to the sentence-final temporal markers.
4.1. About agreement
The specific characteristics of agreement and its markers are captured as follows: “First, agreement markers are, by definition, displaced: they say something about a constituent other than what they are formally associated with. For example, the person-number markers attached to the verb reflect the person-person-number of the subject. Second, agreement markers are, in the majority of their uses, redundant: the information they convey is also conveyed in some form by the constituent they pertain to (such as person and number also being indicated by the subject itself). And, third, the occurrence of agreement markers is variable, both language-internally and also across languages: they show up under certain conditions but not under others.” (Moravcsik 1988, 90)
In the previous chapter, I established that nau, wazu, agō, dan and wiru can be unified into one system based on their meaning, usage and similarity with regard to the syntactic categories they co-occur with. Furthermore, it has become clear that there is an agreement relation between the conjugational endings on verbs and adjectives and these temporal markers. The following structures depict this relation:
(178) [V]
[Non-past: -ru] [Past: -ta]
nau wiru nau10 wazu / agō / dan
10 In its co-occurrence with the past tense form, nau specifically denotes the immediate past.
Presumably, this is due to a semantic property, which make this temporal marker exclusively refer to actions or events that occur closely prior to the time of utterance when it merges with a TP in the past tense.
43 (179) [A]
[Non-past: -i] [Past: -katta]
nau wiru nau wazu / agō / dan These expressions exhibit the same characteristics mentioned above, as they reflect the tense found in the ending of verbs and adjectives. Furthermore, the information they convey is also expressed by the conjugational endings on verbs and adjectives. Finally, it is clear that they do not always appear in the sentence. The projections for each of them are illustrated below:
(180)
a. Bonnetto-(o) kizutsuke-ta yatsu-(o) sagashite (i)-ru nau. hood-ACC scratch-PST guy-ACC search-CVB be-PRS now ‘I’m looking for the guy who scratched the hood of my car.’
b. AgrTP TP AgrT nau DP T’ proi vP T iru DP v’ ti VP v DP V sagashite Bonnetto (o) kizutsuketa yatsu(o)
44 (181)
a. Nagoya-(ni) tsui-ta nau! Nagoya-ALL arrive-PST now ‘I just arrived in Nagoya!
b. AgrTP TP AgrT nau DP T’ proi vP T -ta DP v’ ti VP v PP V tsui Nagoya (ni) (182)
a. Basu-kara kemuri-(ga) de-ta wazu. bus-ABL smoke-NOM come out-PST ‘Smoke came out of the bus.’
45 b. AgrTP TP AgrT wazu PP T’ Basu karai DP T’ kemuri (ga)j vP T -ta DP v’ tj VP v PP V ti de (183)
a. (Buji-ni obāchan-ni a-e-te,) tanoshi-k-at-ta agō. uneventful-ADV grandmother-DAT meet-POT-CVB fun-PRED-be-PST ‘It was fun meeting my grandmother without any trouble.’
b. AgrTP TP AgrT agō DP T’ pro VP T -ta PredP V -at AP Pred tanoshi -k
46 (184)
a. Denkiya-de terebi-(o) kat-ta dan. electrical appliance store-LOC television-ACC buy-PST ‘I bought a TV at an electrical appliance store.’
b. AgrTP TP AgrT dan DP T’ proi vP T -ta DP v’ ti VP v PP V’ denkiya de DP V terebi-(o) kat (185)
a. Ashita byōin-(ni) ik-u wiru. tomorrow hospital-ALL go-NPST FUT ‘I’m going to the hospital tomorrow.’
47 b. AgrTP TP AgrT wiru AdvP T’ Ashita DP T’ proi vP T -u DP v’ ti VP v PP V ik byōin (ni)
4.2. Agreement with silent verbal predicates
How do the projections look when the sentence-final temporal markers co-occur with an NP? First of all, the following nouns commonly precede the sentence-final temporal markers:
1. Nouns denoting food and drinks (chōshoku ‘breakfast’, yakiniku ‘grilled meat’, bīru ‘beer’)
2. Nouns denoting activities and events (dēto ‘date’, basuke ‘basketball’, intabyū ‘interview’)
3. Nouns denoting places (Shinjuku ‘Shinjuku’, byōin ‘hospital’, kōen ‘park’) 4. Verbal nouns (benkyō ‘study’, renshū ‘practice’, kitaku ‘coming home’)
The verbs that usually collocate with these nouns include suru / yaru ‘to do’, iru / aru ‘to be, to exist’, iku ‘to go’, kuru ‘to come’, taberu ‘to eat’, nomu ‘to drink’ and the copula da. It seems to be the case that these verbs are unexpressed whenever an NP of the above-mentioned categories is followed by one of the temporal markers. This means that they agree with a silent verb, based on its tense. For example, in a sentence like ‘Basuke wazu’ (‘I played basketball’) the verb shita ‘did, played’ as in ‘Basuke o shita’ is dropped, but
48
since there is a need for AgrT to agree with this verb form, the temporal marker wazu
occurs and this provides the temporal information to correctly interpret this sentence as one used in the past tense. In the same way, nau and wiru appear in order to form an agreement relation with a silent verb ending in -(r)u and this enables the reader to interpret the sentence as one referring to either the present or future tense, as the non-past tense ending -(r)u can be interpreted in these two ways. The syntactic structure for these constructions is illustrated as follows:
(186)
a. Gakkō(-ni i-ru) nau. school-LOC be-PRS now ‘I’m now at school.’
b. AgrTP TP AgrT nau DP T’ proi vP T Ø DP v’ ti VP v PP V gakkō(-ni) Ø (187)
a. Shoppingu(-o shi-ta) wazu. shopping-ACC do-PST ‘I did some shopping.’
49 b. AgrTP TP AgrT wazu DP T’ proi vP T Ø DP v’ ti VP v DP V shoppingu(-o) Ø (188)
a. Shinjuku shiti marason(-o yat-ta) dan. Shinjuku city marathon-ACC do-PST
‘I took part in the Shinjuku city marathon.’ b. AgrTP TP AgrT dan DP T’ proi vP T Ø DP v’ ti VP v DP V Shinjuku shiti marason(-o) Ø
50 (189)
a. Tesuto benkyō(-o shi-ta) agō. test study-ACC do-PST
‘I was studying for my test.’
b. AgrTP TP AgrT agō DP T’ proi vP T Ø DP v’ ti VP v DP V tesuto benkyō(-o) Ø (190)
a. Gōkakyakusen-de dinā(-o su-ru) wiru. luxury cruise ship-LOC dinner-ACC do-NPST FUT ‘I’m going to have dinner on a luxury cruise ship.’
51 b. AgrTP TP AgrT wiru DP T’ proi vP T Ø DP v’ ti VP v PP V’ gōkakyakusen(-de) DP V dinā(-o) Ø (191)
a. Okinawa(-ni i-ru) sutiru. Okinawa-LOC be-PRS still ‘I’m still in Okinawa.’
b. AgrTP TP AgrT sutiru DP T’ proi vP T Ø DP v’ ti VP v PP V Okinawa(-ni) Ø
52
Likewise, the verbal predicate may be omitted in the direct presence of evidential markers, nominal adjectives, adverbs and postpositions. As mentioned in section 3.1., Netspeak allows for brief and compact language by abbreviating and omitting words. Leaving out the verbal predicate seems to tie in directly to this characteristic, since it can be deduced from the context in which one of the sentence-final temporal markers occurs.
53
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1. ConclusionThe aim of this thesis was to shed light on syntactic aspects of the sentence-final temporal markers nau, wazu, wiru, dan, sutiru and agō, as their usage suggests that there is a form of innovation in the grammatical domain beyond just the borrowing of lexical items. These markers resemble temporal adverbs, in that they show coherence with the tense of the predicate. However, contrary to this category of adverbs, which take up the position the specifier of TP, the sentence-final temporal markers have a syntactic distribution similar to sentence-final particles, which head their own projection outside TP. This led to the main question how these expressions could semantically function as temporal adverbs although syntactically behaving like sentence-final particles.
In order to answer this question, I attempted an analysis in accordance with the cartographic approach. Based on this framework, I assumed the syntactic structure for the Japanese right periphery to be: [[[[[TP ] Fin ] M ] Force ] SA ] Report ]. As part of the methodology, I collected a total of 1045 tweets containing each of the expressions from Twitter by using the Twitter Advanced Search engine in order to derive common patterns concerning their usage. I then performed multiple substitution tests in order to gain a better understanding of the syntactic distribution of the temporal markers in question. As a result, it has become clear that the expressions in question are part of the same syntactic category. Specifically, nau, wazu, agō, dan and wiru can be unified into one tense system based on their meaning, usage and similarity in terms of compatibility with other syntactic categories. Since it is possible to interpret tense without the use of these expressions, it could be said that they mainly function to agree with the conjugational ending of verbs and adjectives. The fact that they syntactically behave as sentence-final particles and in this way take scope over the whole sentence means that they head their own projection (AgrTP) and the head of this projection changes according to the
conjugational ending the predicate takes. If the non-past ending -(r)u or -i occupies the head of TP, nau and wiru can co-occur in order to denote either the present or the future. Wazu, agō, dan and nau appear if the past ending (-kat)ta occurs in the head of TP. In this case, nau only denotes the immediate past, which is due to its semantic property. As for sutiru, its meaning, which is identical to that of the aspectual adverb mada ‘still, yet’, suggests that it does not fit in the tense system of the other temporal markers. However, its similarity with regard to compatibility indicates that it belongs to the same syntactic category as the other markers.
54
presence of nouns, verbal nouns, evidential markers, nominal adjectives, adverbs and postpositions. The verbs suru / yaru ‘to do’, iru / aru ‘to be, to exist’, iku ‘to go’, kuru ‘to come’, taberu ‘to eat’, nomu ‘to drink’ and the copula da are commonly omitted when co-occurring with these syntactic categories. As there is a need for the sentence-final temporal markers to form an agreement relation with the predicate, they appear within the sentence and in this way provide the temporal information that helps the reader interpret the sentence in the correct tense.
The emergence of sentence-final temporal markers in Japanese Internet slang is a clear example of how change can occur in the syntactic domain of a language under the influence of the Internet and social media. It must be left to future research to discover in what other ways these relatively new media contribute to language change.
