Abstract
In Early-Middle Japanese, there are two forms of exclamatory expression: "nominal-kana" and "nominal-ya". Both forms require modification of the preceding nominal. On the other hand, they are different in the modifications they require. In "nominal-kana", the noun is modified by adnominal form of predicates, including auxiliary verbs of tense and honorifics. In "nominal-ya", on the other hand, the noun is modified by the stem of adjectives and the genitive marker no. "Nominal-kana" can be used regardless of social standing, and it is supposed that the speaker takes into consideration their status relative to the listener. The speaker may also use this form about events in either the past, the present or the future. From this, it is assumed that the speaker also takes into consideration when the event being discussed occurred. In contrast, "nominal-ya" is not used when the listener is of higher social status. This form is used when the speaker does not need to take into consideration the social standing of the listener. In addition, "nominal-ya" is used almost exclusively with regards to events in the present. This indicates the speaker does not take into account when the event took place. Given these examples of usage, "nominal-kana" expresses the speaker's strong emotion toward the event in question, whereas "nominal-ya" expresses the speaker's reaction to the event in the present time. These differences in expressiveness are closely related to their constructions.
