現代日本語における可能表現の意味分類について : 実現可能性の在り処を基準に

Abstract

In this review, I classified the semantic/structural types of possibility expressions that possible verbs are used as predicates, based on "the point of realizability". And then, I identified the syntactical features that supported the types, and reviewed what each type expresses the meaning of possibility. I discovered that the meaning of possibility expression sentences cannot be clearly divided into < potential possibility > and < actual possibility > , but that there are types that show the transition from the former to the latter . In addition, I analyzed under what structural features the meaning of < potential/actual> possibility expressions tend to appear, and how the transition between two types takes place. Moreover, we cannot deny the linkage between the meaning of possibility expressions and the form of tense that the predicate shows, but, I concluded that the meaning of possibility expressions is directed by the relation between the situation and timeliness that a sentence expresses.