Abstract
In dialects spoken in the western Kamigata area around Kobe, -Te + Specifier construction (TSC), e.g.-teja, -tezo, -teka, can be used as a subject honorific expression (sonkeigo). It is well known that TSC first appeared in the early Edo period and as a stative expression. Regarding the establishment of TSC, four previous opinions have been presented so far, but none of them could solve the following problems: 1) Why did TSC appear in that period? 2) Why did it express a stative mood? 3) Why did it express a subject honorific mood, though without including any honorific word elements? To answer these questions, I propose a new opinion: that the TSC was derived from the -tegozaru construction that was widely used as a stative and honorific expression at the end of the Muromachi period.
