Responsible Japanese vs. "International" Indic:A Cognitive Contrast of Non-intentional Events

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  • 「責任重視型」日本語対「意図重視型」インド諸語:非意図的な出来事の認知的対照研究

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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to: 1) provide a comprehensive descriptive account of transitively encoded non-intentional events in Japanese and 2) offer a principled explanation for the fundamental issue: Why a predominantly BECOME-language like Japanese freely permits transitive encoding of such events, through a contrastive study with their counterparts in Indic languages. The raison d'être for such a comparison is that such events can be rendered using a transitive verb only sporadically in Indic languages. This will thus offer a unique opportunity to see a clear-cut contrast pertaining to linguistic encoding of non-intentional events. We claim that the similarities and differences between Japanese and Indic languages with regard to non-intentional events follow from the ways these situations are conceptualized. We propose that the differences in conceptualization of the same external reality are guided by socio-cultural factors that shape our cognition. The cognitive account proposed here suggests that Japanese is more sensitive to the notion of "responsibility" than its Indic counterparts, while Indic languages are more sensitive to the notion of "intentionality" than Japanese —not in absolute terms but in a relative sense. Crossing the threshold of grammar, a non-native learner of a language needs to master such cognitive parameters in order to sound "natural" in that language. The notions of a DO- vs. a BECOME-language or a PERSON-FOCUS vs. a SITUATION-FOCUS-language are not a matter of all or nothing (i.e., dichotomy) but a matter of degree (i.e., continuum).

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