The current tendency of philological studies is to divide the functions of tense into "narration" and "explanation." If this tendency is applied to the cases of classical Japanese language, as used in the Heian Period, the auxiliary verb "keri," signifying completion, can be said to perform the function of "explanation." Now, Yamato Monogatari applies "keri" as a major auxiliary verb determining the mode of its description. This has much to do with the significance of waka in this text. This is to say, while prose signifies temporal determination waka signifies transcendence of time, belonging to the time-space of the past and the present simultaneously. For this reason, the subject of expression in this text must encompass the past and the present dimensions at once, thus making the vehicle of "explanation" the major mode of description.
View full abstract