「インタラクションの文法」に向けて : 現代日本語の疑似エビデンシャル

Abstract

A considerable number of linguistic studies have been made on image-schema, but little attention has been given to the interaction between the conceptualizer and his/her environment. Throughout an observation of Japanese pseudo-evidentials this paper shows that interaction as well as image-schema has a great influence on language expressions. Interaction enables the speaker to express a state as the conceptualizer's experience in two ways. The first way is to express a state as the conceptualizer's experience of probing the environment. The Japanese sentence "Shisenryoori-niwa, karakunai-nomo tokidoki aru (lit. There are sometimes non-spicy Suchuan dishes), " for example, can convey the meaning that some Suchuan dishes are not spicy unless it is uttered (as a monologue) by a chef of Suchuan dishes. This is because a chef of Suchuan dishes knows too much about Suchuan dishes to express his/her experience of probing the world of Suchuan dishes instead of simply expressing the objective knowledge "Some Suchuan dishes are not spicy". The second way is to express a state as the conceptualizer's somatic reaction to environmental stimuli. Thus the Japanese sentence "Watashi-wa sankai itakatta (lit. I was painful three times)" is more natural than the sentence "Watashi-wa sankai akakatta (lit. I was red three times), " because the cognition of pain is more somatic and primitive than that of color in that the latter needs judgment of color category. Since an experience is a kind of event, interaction allows a state to be expressed as an event, which means that an event does not necessarily have time shift as its factor, distinct from the event models previously suggested.