This study examines the actual conditions of the emphatic or illustrative particle "bashi" in Kyogen Daihon. Bashi was used as a colloquial expression during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. This research deals with the change in the use of bashi during the Edo period. The following facts were clarified. 1) Nouns account for more than half of the preceding words. Among these nouns, the objective case is observed to have been used throughout the Edo period, whereas a nominative case is also used and the mid Edo period. From this period, the auxiliary verb de-nite is also used. 2) The majority of the co-occurring phrase-final expressions are interrogatives. Prohibition expressions are limited to definitive forms like utai, and the newer bashi co-occurs with the polite interrogatives gozaruka and oryaruka. Based on the aforementioned facts, we can draw the following conclusions regarding changes in the use of the particle bashi. The expression bashi originally functioned to emphasize preceding words, but was reanalyzed as functioning to show members of a set similar to the preceding noun, in the sense of "for example, these kinds of things". Furthermore, scripts from the mid Edo period show that it came to be seen as indicating other imaginary members of a set containing the preceding word, and hence functioned as an "elegant" interrogative.

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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.

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The sentence "Kare wa kanari nessin datta" which has an adjectival predicate and the sentence "Kare wa kanari no nessinsa datta" which has a nominal predicate are nearly the same in both meaning and form. This paper explores the properties of the latter type of Japanese sentences with nominal predicates consisting of adjectival stems and suffix sa. Unlike adjectives, α-sa (α stands for an adjectival stem) cannot function as qualifying predicates by themselves, because they have no substantial meaning other than just the concept of stative degree. To be a qualifying predicate they need to be modified by some phrase. α-sa as qualifying predicates have two usages, neutral usage (which is unique to α-sa phrases), and evaluative usage. Though evaluative usage is common to adjectives, predication by α-sa phrases is different from that of adjectives in that α-sa phrases need some contextual presupposition. While evaluation by adjectival predicates is oriented to the existence of some quality itself, evaluation by α-sa phrases is oriented to what the details of the quality are. A variety of semantic relations between α-sa and its modifier brings fertile expressiveness to the sentences.

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In this paper we analysed the position of borrowed stems in terminologies. Several studies have so far addressed the characteristics of borrowed stems in terminologies, but most of them have assumed a priori the difference between borrowed stems and other stems, while the very position of borrowed stems in the construction of terminologies has not been examined fully. In this paper, we evaluate the position of borrowed stems by comparing two hypotheses - (1) borrowed stems and other stems belong to the same set in the construction of terminologies; and (2) borrowed stems and other stems constitute different sets in the construction of terminologies - by using a quantitative simulation based on terminological data from six academic fields. The analyses showed that, in all six fields analysed, borrowed stems behave qualitatively differently when a new stem is introduced to the terminology, while once the stem is used in the terminology, the borrowed stems behave in essentially the same manner as other morphemes.

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This paper studies the development of quasi-nominal particles such as no, ga, gan, to and na in Japanese dialects, through an analysis of language maps and dialectal data from the past. A survey of some of the language maps in Grammar Atlas of Japanese Dialects shows that no is widely found in central Japan, ga in some outer areas like Hokuriku and the southern part of Shikoku, gan in Niigata, na on the Japan Sea side of Tohoku and to in Kyushu. This distribution indicates that no is new and that ga and gan are relatively old; to and na seem to be unique to their respective districts. In the history of Standard Japanese, it is said that (1) as case particles, ga hosts a noun which is familiar to the speaker and no hosts one not familiar, (2) grammatical differences between the two have gradually become dominant since the Muromachi era. Ga functions as nominative case, no as genitive case; and (3) quasi-nominal particles ga and no developed from these case functions at the beginning of the Edo era. Based on dialectal data in the Edo era we can say that the same kinds of quasinominal particles are already found in those areas mentioned above. This developed in parallel with those of Standard Japanese. Thus, ga in the outer areas is derived from its use as a case particle almost independently of Standard Japanese when (3) is realized under the condition of (1), no in the central area occurred when (3) is realized under the condition of (2). Gan in Niigata is a combined form of ga and no. To in Kyushu is possibly derived from its use of a case particle. Na is supposed to derive from the auxiliary verb nari to express assertion.

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This article discusses the perfect-tense form si: uki in Ryukyu-Tarama dialect. It describes the grammatical meanings of si: uki, and considers the 'core temporal meaning' of this form through comparison of si: uki with si: buL. The form si: uki expresses three perfect-tense meanings: ・completion of action or completion of state change and duration of its effect. ・completion of movement and its traces. ・a record or historical process. The continuative-aspect form si: buL, also expresses these perfect-tense meanings, but in addition to these, it has also another kind of use which expresses: ・commencement of action and its ongoing process. This difference between si: uki and si: buL shows that each form has a different 'core temporal meaning'. Even when si: buL is used to express a perfect-tense meaning, it is mainly used to express "a continuative stage", while si: uki is used in this case to express a stage of completion of an action before the reference time. Therefore, this article concludes that the 'core temporal meaning' of the form si: uki is to express both the "perfect" and "previous".

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This study considers the factors related to the formation, establishment and spread of a new word through an observation of the circumstances involved with the word shokkan (食感). Although shokkan is a new word which came to be used widely in recent years, this word is used in authorized textbooks and official documents, and can be counted as a Kidukanai Shin-go ("unnoticed new word"). This word was used first among food and cooking studies researchers in its wide sense of synthesizing "taste, aroma, and tactility". But shokkan has been used in a narrow sense of "texture as perceived in the mouth" from around the 1960s, when food texture research reached its stride. It is thought that the pre-existence of the synonym Shokkan (触感) participating as a background factor in generating shokkan (食感) in the narrow sense. There are several factors behind classifying shokkan (食感) as an "unnoticed new word": 1) Shokkan (食感) is a "Chinese character word" which makes the Chinese character notation an original form. 2) The existence of the homonym shokkan (触感) : on the level of spoken language, since shokkan (食感) is the same as shokkan (触感), resistance to the acceptance of the new word was less. 3) The existence of the "lexical system support": this word compensated for the lack of a word synthesizing the tactile sense corresponding to aji (taste) and iro (color), and was positioned as one of the shoku vocabulary items along with shokumi (食味) and shokuiku (食育).

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