In this paper, we demonstrated how the particle ka in Japanese evolved its disjunctive and indeterminate uses. Ka was originally used only as a question particle until Early Middle Japanese. The disjunctive use is first found in the sentence final position in Kakuichibon Heike Monogatari and, after the 15th century, largely attested in NP-positions. Our paper shows that indeterminate use of ka emerges in the adverbial position before the appearance of ka in NP-positions. Descriptive studies on the history of the relevant particle have been concerned with the period when a particular use emerged. This study, however, shows through the analysis of highly verifiable data in which examples are classified by their morpho-syntactic patterns, that a particular use does not appear abruptly but is formed gradually. Based on these facts, we argue that the history of ka in NP-positions, including indirect-question use, is explained by the features [±N] and [±wh].

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Transitions in the use of the conjunctions sorenara, soredewa, soreyattara and soshitara in the Kamigata/Osaka dialect were analysed to see how they reached their current state of coexistence, based on comparisons with the overall history of conditional statements as well as with a comparison with the Edo/Tokyo dialect. The results of this research show the following two points: (1) In the middle of the Edo period, sorenara was used almost exclusively, with soreyattara and soshitara appearing and developing from the late Edo period, along with the expansion of the systematic shift in conditional statements that was-tara. (2) Independently from the system of conditional statements, soredewa began being used in the Meiji period under the influence of the Edo/Tokyo dialect. The transition of conjunctive uses for these words can be seen as having two sides. First, the change of the Kamigata/Osaka dialect from being the capital dialect to being a regional dialect lead to a decreased association with standard and written language, thus demonstrating its uniqueness as the Kamigata/Osaka dialect. Second, the Kamigata/Osaka dialect was now in a position to be influenced by the power of the new capital and the Edo/Tokyo dialect. In that respect, the changes in sorenara-type conjunctions are symbolic expressions of the changes in the position of the Kamigata/Osaka dialect from the Edo period onward.

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The Kanji 便 (which is used as a morpheme) in Modern Japanese has the sounds bin and ben, and is generally used to denote 'communication' when pronounced as bin, and 'convenience' when pronounced as ben. Examples where bin is used to denote 'convenience' are also found, but they are clearly in the minority. However, before the Meiji period, bin was more used to denote 'convenience', and very few examples of 'communication' are found. This paper shows the relation between bin and ben and their meanings that formed in the Meiji period. Furthermore, we can see the influence of individual examples of 便 on the formation of this relationship. For example, yubin and benri were commonly used in the Meiji period, and are still widely used in Modern Japanese. Yubin is the name of the postal service introduced in the Meiji period, and thus it soon became increasingly used to denote 'communications'. On the other hand, benri which is very similar in meaning to 'convenience', led to the tendency of using ben to denote 'convenience'. As a result, ben was more used to denote 'convenience'. This paper shows that the expansion of the individual examples of kanji can change the relation between the sounds and meanings of the kanji itself.

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It is presumed that inanimate-subject passives have (with the exception of the statives used in the description of circumstances) developed largely under the influence of the styles of translated Western languages during modern times. However, it seems that specific verifications of the aspects of this development have yet to be made. By chronologically checking the examples of passive sentences used in literary works in the modern age, this paper, with the goal of examining aspects of the development of inanimate-subject passive in each era, chronologically shows the expansion of inanimate-subject passives which indicate "state", into inanimate-subject passives which indicate "event", and the aspects of the development of passive sentences which use abstract nouns as subjects. In addition, in order to confirm the influence of the "translation style", this paper examines examples of the usage of passive sentences used in translations in early modern times and confirms the influence of the "translation style" on Japanese passive sentences. Finally, this paper examines the roles of the passive sentence in place of intransitive verbs, as an internal factor of Japanese, in which inanimate-subject passive has developed since modern times.

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In this study, the expansion process of so-called "beautifying words" incorporating "o-" is analyzed. This study was based on a questionnaire survey designed to investigate the use of "female words" and "beautifying words" incorporating "o-". It confirmed that differences in usage according to gender were large, and that there was variation according to situation and style. In addition, words with "o-" were analyzed in relation to the user's age, gender, and the addressee (junior or senior, near or distant) by using scattergrams which allowed the visualization of two elements on one graph. The results were interpreted as a continuum of linguistic change. The process of the mutation increasing during the change can be explained by the "Lens model". Words with "o-" are distributed continuously from those with a low usage rate to those of high usage rate. Using this as a clue, it was possible to consider the synchrony of the word increasing one-dimensionally as the reflection of a long historical process. For example, the study showed that women began to put "o-" on some words which can be seen as "excessive o-", while men tended to use original "honorific expressions" conventionally. Women gradually increased this type of usage and it expanded so that these expressions became thought of as "female words". Finally men also began to use these words so that they then became established as "beautifying words". The process of a weakening in the gender gap and style differences was seen again. On the basis of this process, the following change can be explained. When "o-" adhering to a certain word becomes natural, the "o-" can be attached to the word twice (excessively). In this paper the cyclic process of "o-" is advocated.

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This paper examines the devoicing rates of high vowels in five dialects, namely Akita, Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kumamoto. The data were collected in 2006 and 2007 and include information from 306 participants between the ages of 10 and 87. The paper examines the factors affecting vowel devoicing, and analyzes age differences of devoicing rates for each dialect. The main findings of the paper are as follows. First, the devoicing rate of each dialect is strongly affected by sound environments. As for the relationship between the word accent and the devoicing rate, the sound environment is more important than the word accent even in Osaka and Hyogo. Second, this study confirms Byun's argument that there are generational differences in devoicing rates in most dialects. Indeed, the study clearly shows that generational gaps in devoicing rates differ from dialect to dialect. The gap exists between those in their 60s and 50s in Akita while gaps are evident between those in their 40s and 30s in Osaka and Kumamoto. There is also a possibility that a gap exists between those in their 40s and 30s in Hyogo. However, there are no significant differences among the age groups of Tokyo. Finally, a comparative analysis of current and previous data collected twenty years ago shows that devoicing rate of the same cohort of speakers is almost the same.

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The relation-complement types of noun modifying clause constructions are composed of head nouns which indicate some relational notions and modifying clauses that complement them. There are two sub-types of those modifying clauses: mono-type, in which the clauses express mono or 'substances', and koto-type, in which the clauses express koto or 'matters.' In Heian period Japanese, the mono-type had more usages than the same type in Modern Japanese. In the Old Japanese, there were juntai-nominal clauses (headless nominal clauses) that also had two parallel types: mono-type and koto-type. In this paper, I demonstrate that the existence of mono-type juntai-nominal clauses enabled a relation-complement type expression which is not used in Modern Japanese.

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On map no. 38 in the Grammar Atlas of Japanese Dialects, the adversative expressions (1) domo and batten are located on the outer side of eastern and western Japan, (2) ga on the inner side and (3) keredo (mo) in the central area of Japan. Based on historical as well as geo-linguistic surveys, it is supposed that these forms developed in the central area of Japan (Kinki area) first, and then expanded to other areas, giving rise to the distribution today. It is necessary to examine why these word forms show these geographical distributions. The (1) area largely overlaps that of expressions formed using ba, and the forms are similar to conditional expressions in that they are all added as suffixes to the izenkei conjugational form. Tightly connected with each other, these expressions occupy, therefore, the same geographical territory. But as the usage of the izenkei changed around the Kinsei period, the (1) forms resisted change and came to be added as suffixes to the "sentence-final form" (shushikei). The inner region of area (2) is scattered into three parts: the Chugoku region, the Tokai region, and around the edge of the Kanto region. Area (3) expanded over area (2) and spread further away. This suggests that during the period that area (2) forms were reaching the area of the (1) forms, the (3) form started to spread from the center of Japan. At the time Japan had two cultural centers one in Kinki, and one in Edo from which the new (3) form started to spread. As a result, the (2) form remained at the two corners of both western and eastern Japan. These processes could imply that linguistic distribution first started from the Kinki area and spread out from there to other regions of Japan, but since the Kinsei period, Edo rose as a second cultural center, starting the spread of new forms and leading to the current day distribution.

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