This paper deals with verb-te clauses which express attendant circumstances, successive events, causes and reasons, and concurrent events. Examining these verb-te clauses syntactically, I suggest the following two points: 1) The syntactic structure of verb-te clauses can be divided into two categories on the grounds of tests for 'shika-nai,' '-sae,' and pseudo-cleft sentences. The verb-te clauses which express attendant circumstances form an adjunct structure which adjoins to the verb phrase, while the other verb-te clauses form a coordinate structure in which tense phrases are conjoined. 2) On the basis of these syntactic structures, -te forms can be divided into two categories. The -te form which constitutes an adjunct structure functions as an aspect marker, while the -te form which constitutes a coordinate structure functions as a conjoining form. Clarification of the syntactic structures of verb-te clauses is sure to help account for their morphological restrictions. This paper presents a framework that captures the correlation between the form and syntactic structure of verb-te clauses.

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While many preceding studies have regarded kando-kantai sentences (an exclamatory sentence typically ending in a bare noun such as utukusii hana 'beautiful flower !', referred to as A-type sentence in this paper) as a type of exclamatory sentence, sentences bracketed with nanto and daroo (such as nanto utsutkushii hana daroo 'what a beautiful flower !', referred to as the nanto-type sentence in this paper) have been regarded as a peripheral kind of interrogative sentence, despite it being an attempt to project the emotion of the speaker. This paper suggests that the form and function of the nanto-type sentence correspond to those of the A-type sentence, which leads to the conclusion that the former is not an interrogative but an exclamatory sentence. Specifically, the paper shows that the nanto-type sentence is characterized by the following three points: (1) nanto does not function as an interrogative; (2) nanto must accompany a noun with a modifier phrase expressing an attribute, which indicates that the nanto-type sentence is the phrasal nominal; and (3) the markers -daroo, -ka, and -da, which usually encode the illocutionary force of a declarative, lose this function when they co-occur with nanto; consequently, the categorical selection of -daroo is limited to nominal phrases.

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The two syntactic forms illustrated in (1), i.e. [NP-ni NP-wo V] and [NP-wo NP-de V] sometimes describe similar events. This phenomenon is referred to as 'locative alternation'.(1) a. kabe-ni penki-wo nuru [NP-ni NP-ivo V] wall-on paint-ACC smear 'smear paint on the wall' b. kabe-wo penki-de nuru [NP-wo NP-de V] wall-ACC paint-with smear 'smear the wall with paint' Pointing out that there is another pattern of alternation as illustrated in (2), this paper first argues that the semantic roles of the NPs are not relevant to the determination of these alternation patterns.(2) a. kami-ni hon-wo kurumu [NP-ni NP-wo V] paper-in book-ACC wrap 'wrap the book in paper' b. hon-wo kami-de kurumu [NP-wo NP-de V] paper-ACC book-with wrap 'wrap the book with paper' The paper then proposes that whether sentences are subject to the alternation pattern of (1) or that of (2) is actually determined in a different, subsidiary level of verb meanings from the one where the semantic roles are assigned to the NPs.

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Recognizing the importance of elucidating the mechanism of naming, investigating why certain names are given to certain commercial products and what kind of names are likely to be given to new ones in future, this paper employs a new method, i.e., to survey all names given by several different companies for certain categories of products. The paper focuses on the so-called "The Three Sacred Treasures" (refrigerator, washing machine, and television), to find out if there is a regular tendency in the transition patterns of the naming. Dealing with not only proper names but also common names given to these electric home appliances, the paper analyzes the transition patterns of naming based on four kinds of constituent elements in their names: basic names, type names, function names and proper names. As a conclusion, this paper describes the following three points: (1) Appearance of these four elements follows regular patterns; (2) These patterns correspond to the patterns of introduction of new products or functions/technologies, as well as to those of their popularization or standardization; (3) Such popularization of new products and new functions/technologies in turn results in change in the concepts of these categories themselves. The paper suggests that the method employed in this paper will be effective in clarifying the mechanism of naming.

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This paper focuses on expressions for the number of people in Konjaku-monogatari-shu, with an aim to describe and analyze the conditions of usage of the numerical expressions in old and middle Japanese. It first examines how relative frequency of Q-preposing and Q-shifting changes as time passes. It was found that the volumes in Konjaku-monogatari-shu which are influenced by the diacritical language (kanbun-tai), namely, a style used to translate Chinese into Japanese, contain more instances of Q-preposing than other volumes, while those which are influenced by Old Japanese conversational style (wabun-tai) contain more instances of Q-shifting and Q-floating. It also shows that throughout all the volumes in Konjaku-monogatari-shu, some functional differences, illustrated below, are observable between Q-preposing and Q-shifting, which is not the case in Modern Japanese. 1) The Q-preposing in Konjaku-monogatari-shu roughly corresponds to the function of Q-floating in Modern Japanese. 2) The Q-floating of Konjaku-monogatari-shu increased beyond that of Japanese conversational texts in the Heian period (Heiankana-bun).

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The purpose of this paper is to categorically define the auxiliary tari which, when combined with nominals, has been believed to express 'assertion' in classical Japanese. It has been pointed out that traditionally, in comparison with the similar auxiliary nari, tari has more restrictions on style and more constraints on preceding nouns. The question of what this historically undoubted fact actually means, however, has remained unexplained up to now. This is the reason the present study has been undertaken, to present a new perspective on the categorical definition of tari, based upon the following four observations: (1) Tari is never permitted to be linked with a proper noun nor a pronoun, and it never occurs in response to a question. These points tari has in common with the auxiliary nite-ari. (2) There is a stylistic difference between tari and nite-ari. Tari is a kanbun-kundoku (a style of Japanese used for reading Chinese texts) word, while nite-ari is a wabun (native Japanese style) word. Therefore, tari is complementary not to nari, but to niteari. (3) Tari and nite-ari are words which express 'existence' rather than 'assertion'. (4) Tari did not experience a process of grammaticalization, whereas nite-ari did, in the course of Medieval Japanese. This seems to account for the decline of tari thereafter.

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It has been recognized that, in ancient family registers, contradistinctive naming was used to show seniority among siblings such as ofo vs. wo or je vs. oto. This paper discusses the nature of naming, dealing with how the contradistinctive naming found in the family registers is realized, with some differences, in Kojiki and Nihon-shoki (Ki-Shoki). This paper shows that naka, which is almost never found in the family registers, is found in Ki-Shoki. Naka corresponds to oto in that it shows ordinal seniority. It also reveals that waka in the ofo-(wo-)waka correspondence came to be used to show degree of seniority rather than as an aesthetic element.

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