A study of "naru" expressing changes : usage in theses(<Special Issue>Linguistic Science in e-Society)

Abstract

This article analyzes the usages and contexts of the word "naru" which expresses changes in Japanese. The source data were articles in three theses corpora taken from Internet sites in Japan. The following results were found: 1) Words followed by "naru" tend to be restricted to the natural sciences. 2) The distribution of voice in the verbal form "-suru yoo ni naru" is specific to certain major fields. 3) A few words and phrases followed by "naru" are commonly found among different fields. 4) The distribution of sentences which includes a verbal form or an i-adjective form is specific to certain major fields.