The Diachronic Development of the Sani-construction and a Causal Particle sani

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  • サニ構文の成立・展開と助詞サニについて
  • サニ コウブン ノ セイリツ テンカイ ト ジョシ サニ ニ ツイテ

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Abstract

I discuss the diachronic change of sani-construction which consists of a sani-clause and a main clause: fune-no mutukasisa-ni fito-no ife-ni uturu ('since the ship was unbearable, I moved from the ship to someone's house.'); the origin of the sani-construction, the processes of its historical development and the formation of a causal particle sani. Originally, the sani-construction in the tenth century was semantically constrained. However, as time went on from the eleventh century, this constraint had weakened, and in the fifteenth century disappeared. I consider these facts as a qualitative change in causal sentences. That is, the original sani-construction is characterized as a causal sentence by the semantic relation between the sani-clause and the main clause. On the other hand, the sani-construction in the fifteenth century is characterized as a causal sentence by the causal particle sani. The formation of this particle that developed from the sani-construction is explained as a case of lexicalization in that a series of originally separate morphemes was reanalyzed into a monomorpheme and causality was lexicalized in the form sani by the loss of the boundary betweeen sa and ni.

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