Interrogatives about the speaker's intention in Early Middle Japanese

Abstract

This paper investigates interrogatives about the speaker's intention in Early Middle Japanese, focusing on the type of interrogative and the auxiliary verb at the end of the sentence. The results show that mashi is used in Yes/No questions, and both mashi and mu are used in WH questions.

This paper also organizes each sentence pattern according to what is at issue and whether or not performing the action has been decided . Yes/No questions with mashi represent hesitation about whether or not to perform the action. On the other hand, WH questions with either mashi or mu represent hesitation about how to perform the action. “Ikani semashi” represents hesitation about whether or not to perform an action. And “Ikani semu” represents hesitation about what kind of action to perform.

The characteristic of interrogatives with mashi is that it is not decided that the action will be performed. The characteristic of interrogatives with mu is that it is decided that action will be performed.