Semantic-functional Expansion of -te shimau and its Variants from the Edo Period to the Present

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  • テシマウ相当形式の意味機能拡張
  • テ シマウ ソウトウ ケイシキ ノ イミ キノウ カクチョウ

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In Modern-day Standard Japanese, shimau when used in auxiliary verb constructions (henceforth -te shimau) has some phonological variants (-chimau, -chau, etc.). It also shows variation in its semantic function, expressing the aspectual meaning of "completion" in the broad sense and also emotional and evaluative feelings of the speaker. In this paper, we clarify that this construction expanded from the former to the latter semantic function by investigating examples of historical data from the Edo period to the present. The main results can be summarized as follows: (1) The main verb shimau of the Edo period meant "to end" or "to put something in order" according to the descriptions of dictionaries. (2) Until the beginning of the 19th century, -te shimau connected with typical dynamic verbs (telic verbs/ atelic verbs), and expressed "achievement of the terminating end point of the event". However, it became more abstract semantically, while expanding the range of its uses initially in inner stative verbs (including psych-verbs, thinking verbs and perception verbs) and then in stative verbs. As a result, the construction has changed into a marker that shows the final achievement of the event regardless of the inceptive end point or the terminating end point. (3) The characteristic of negative emotional and evaluative meaning began in cases when the speaker did not correspond to the agent. This negative meaning was gradually branded onto the lexical meaning of -te shimau, and the negative usage spread to other cases than this as well. The results also showed that this extension is along direction of subjectification, which is often seen as a process of grammaticalization. We also saw that subjectification is one of the changes that expanded the semantic functions of auxiliary verbs such as -nu and -tsu in ancient Japanese.

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