Two Trends in the Diachronic Changes of the Compound Particle o motte

Abstract

The study aim was to provide a systematic account of diachronic changes in the Japanese compound particle o motte, with a particular focus on clarifying how its usage has evolved over time. In the modern period, o motte appeared quite frequently with usage patterns that are no longer found in present-day Japanese, indicating that both its frequency and functional range have declined over time. A corpus-based investigation revealed that o motte in the modern era displayed a unique and expanded range of usage compared to that in earlier periods, including constructions specific to that era (e.g., the expression of location). To organize the wide variety of uses and analyze their historical development, this study employed an analytical framework originally developed in prior research on the polysemous case particle de.

The study findings revealed that two distinct trends have coexisted in the diachronic development of o motte. The first involved the emergence and subsequent decline of usage patterns specific to the modern period (i.e., changes that can be characterized as localized and temporally bounded). The second is a more systemic, unidirectional shift in the overall functional tendency of o motte, which reflects a broader trajectory of semantic change beyond individual constructions. By applying a synchronic analytical model originally designed for modern de to the diachronic study of o motte, this study has not only captured the empirical characteristics of its historical transformation; it also demonstrates the methodological value of incorporating contemporary linguistic frameworks into historical linguistic analyses.