Non-auxiliary verb sentences in ancient and modern Japanese texts : Problems in the analysis of ancient Japanese 'conversational' material(<Special Issue>Sociolinguistic Sciences of Communication)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze non-auxiliary verb sentences in ancient Japanese conversational materials and to clarify the distinction between ancient and modern Japanese language. The three following results were verified in the analysis: 1) No sentences have been found which refer to an ever lasting truth such as a law of nature. 2) There are some sentences corresponding to modern -teiru or -ta form. 3) There are some sentences corresponding to modern -nante or -noda form. Thus ancient Japanese non-auxiliary verbs are considered to be undifferentiated forms that cover various predicate forms. The results of this study also show that ancient writers did not tend to describe the actual conditions of conversation, unlike modern writers.