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A Study of Existence Usages of -teiru ―From an Aspect of Case Structure―
Abstract
Among recent studies, an suffix in the form of “-teiru ” in Japanese is often discussed from aspects of “continuation of action” or “lasting existence of outcome.” However, Fukushima (2004) found that the ungrammatical sentence *池に鯉が泳いだ becomes grammatical if 泳いだ in the sentence is replaced by 泳いでいる. Sentence 池に鯉が泳いでいる becomes not only grammatical, tolerance to case particle “ni ” is also enhanced. Fukushima suggested that form -teiru, which changes case of a verb, is exactly the form -teiru discussed in study of Nomura (2003), which functions by showing the existence of a subject by portending the situation of that subject. This study will demonstrate overall transformation of syntactical construction and semantic difference once case particle -teiru of a verb changed. The data was collected from corpus and analyzed from three different aspects, namely noun, verb and other grammatical aspect. The discussion on concluding the feature of case -teiru transformed sentence will also be included.
The three main conclusion of this study are as follows: (i) in a verbal case changing particle -teiru constructed sentence, case particle “ni ” marks “place of existence,” but not “place of action” or “place of lasting outcome,” which means the change of case foregrounds the “existing static situation” of a sentence. Form -teiru expresses the “existence” of a subject, but the continuation or lasting outcome of the action of a subject. The sentence tends to play the role of describing static situation in the overall passage.(ii) After analyzing data by adapting the noun hierarchy of Silverstein, the outcome shows that the lower the noun in the hierarchy, e.g. animal nouns, inanimate nouns, the more frequent the noun exists in discussed -teiru sentences. In conclusion, the lower the noun in the hierarchy, the less animate (active) the noun is, therefore, the easier it appears in the discussed -teiru sentences. (iii) If the form -teiru indicates “continuation of action” or “lasting existence of outcome,” a tendency was found among verbs in the sentence. When -teiru indicates “continuation of action,” verbs in the sentence tend to be “progressive.” By changing the case of the verb, the action in the sentence tends to be changed into description of statics. If form -teiru indicates “lasting existence of outcome,” the verbs in the sentences tend to be “instantaneous,” by changing the case of the verb, the lasting existence of the outcome described is emphasized.
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