メタファー明示構文「N₁のN₂」に関する考察 --「鏡の海」と「ネットの海」を例に--

Abstract

「N₁のN₂」構文が表す意味関係は非常に多様であることが良く知られている(e.g. 西山 2003)が、件の構文がしばしばメタファーを喚起する(e.g. 鏡の海、ネットの海、炎の海)ことはほとんど無視されてきた。そこで、本稿は、メタファー明示構文としての「N₁のN₂」の用法の分類、及び、Sullivan(2013, 2016)と同様に認知文法(e.g. Langacker 1987, 2008)の枠組みに則り、当該構文の分析を行う。

It is well known that an “N₁-no-N₂” construction can be interpreted in various ways according to which items occur within the construction in question (e.g. Nishiyama 2003). For example, chichi-no-hon (“father's book’) represents the ownership, or the book owned by the father. This construction can also serve as a metaphor signaling device, which has not received much attention though. For instance, in a metaphoric phrase kagami-no-umi (“an ocean which looks like a mirror”), umi (“an ocean”) is compared to kagami (“a mirror”). In netto-no-umi (“the Internet, which is like the ocean”), on the other hand, netto (“the Internet”) is compared to umi (“the ocean”). The aim of this paper is to classify the usage of a metaphor signaling device “N₁-no-N₂, ” and attempt an analysis of it based on the framework of Cognitive Grammar (e.g. Langacker 1987, 2008) in accordance with Sullivan (2013, 2016). As a result, this paper points out that there are at least two subtypes of metaphor signaling devices “N₁-no-N₂” in Japanese, and that they differ in their constituencies, which leads to the distinct syntactic arrangements of a tenor and a vehicle.