Abstract
English loanwords transformed into Japanese have lexical categorization processes applied to them. This paper hypothesizes that the borrowed eras of English loanwords (katakana words) influences the lexical categorization process in Japanese, and examines the“ verbness” and“ nounness” of“ X” in the Japanese“ suru（ to do）”-appended English loanwords (“X-suru construction”),“ Adjective + X construction” and“ X-o-suru construction” and the quantitative alternation after the Meiji era. 402 English loanwords which allow the“X-suru construction” in Japanese were extracted from the Concise Katakana Word Dictionary, 2nd edition (Sanseido, 2004）, and the borrowed era data of 400 English loanwords is listed in it. The syntactic behaviors in the Japanese“ X-suru construction,”“ Adjective + X construction,” and“ X-o-suru construction” were observed in order to identify the relations to the eras after the Meiji era. The results suggest that the “verbness” borrowed from English allows the “X-suru construction” in Japanese, that the “nounness” borrowed from English allows the“ Adjective + X construction” and“ X-o-suru construction” in Japanese, and that the acquisition of“ nounness” for“ nounless” English loanwords in the Japanese“ Adjective + X construction” and“ X-o-suru construction” is influenced by the borrowed eras after the Meiji era.
