日本語心理動詞の適切な扱いに向けて

大阪外国語大学

Osaka University of Foreign Studies

長い研究史の中で,日本語動詞の文法的振る舞いがかなり明らかにされてきたのに対し,心理動詞は最も解明が遅れている動詞類の一つである。動詞の体系的分類における位置付けを初めとして,自動詞・他動詞の区分さえ十分に認識されているとは言い難い。そのような状況を幾分かでも改善するために,本稿では,日本語のES型心理動詞が活動動詞であること,そして自動詞・他動詞が明確に峻別されることを論じる。ひとことで言えば,日本語のES型心理動詞が,動詞の体系的分類の中で他の動詞類と同様の地位を有することを示すのが本稿の主論点である。

In this article I investigate the position of Japanese experiencer verbs in the paradigm of verbal classes. In particular, I focus on ES (experiencer-subject) type experiencer verbs as given in (a) , as opposed to EO (experiencer-object) type experiencer verbs as given in (b). (a) John ga kaminari o kowagaru. NOM thunder ACC fears 'John fears thunder' (b) Kaminari ga John o kowagaraseru. thunder NOM ACC frightens 'Thunder frightens John' I demonstrate that ES type experiencer verbs are activity verbs in the sense of Vendler (1967), and have a complete set of intransitive/transitive verbs. In section two I explicate that ES experiencer verbs are activity verbs using several well-attested diagnoses. 1) ES verbs exhibit atelic eventuality in contrast to achievement/accomplishment verbs. 2) The present (-ru) form of ES verbs signifies future time in contrast to state verbs. 3) The progressive (-te iru) form implies a telic event, in contrast to accomplishment verbs. These findings all coincide with properties of activity verbs. In section three I classify ES type experiencer verbs into intransitive and transitive verbs based on three criteria. 1) ES verbs marked with the accusative case marker -o are identified as transitives. 2) ES verbs used with the dative case marker -ni are transitives if a direct passive is available, and intransitives otherwise. 3) ES verbs are transitives if long distance scrambling shows weak unacceptability, and intransitives if this operation induces strong unacceptability. Then I argue that 1) interpretive differences between -ni and -de marked cause phrases and 2) the present eventuality observed for some ES verbs can be explained in terms of this intransitive/transitive distinction. In section four I show that linguistic evidence from aspectuality also suggests that ES type experiencer verbs are similar to activity verbs. Like activity verbs, ES type verbs are compatible with the inception reading but not with the termination reading of an event. However, while some ES verbs, like activity verbs, can occur with durational adverbs, others, quite unexpectedly, do not. I conclude that this dilemma can be solved by applying the idea of 'maintenance' (Moriyama 1988).

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