Abstract
This paper examines the syntactic and semantic change of the Sino-Japanese word muzan (無慙) 'cruel, horrible' in the history of Japanese language, and demonstrates that the semantic change of the word muzan had close relation to the change of its syntactic function in sentences. In the early Japanese literature, the word muzan was frequently used as attributive adjective which expressed the meaning of "not being ashamed of one's own shame," and since the late Heian period it came to be used as predicative adjective. In the process of this syntactic change, the emotional meaning of muzan, originally contained within it, was emphasized and it came to express the meaning of "being terrible." Furthermore, the meaning of "being pitiful" were derived from this meaning based on the metonymical relation of 'cause-effect'. In the beginning of the Japan's modern era, muzan came to be used as manner and degree adverb.
