I have considered hypermeters from various points of view. In this paper I introduce the viewpoint of elision and investigate the differences between group A and B in Man'yoshu which produce hypermeters. I exclude elision in waka where certain problems of recitation may be involved. The method adopted in this paper is to compare the hypermeters in Man'yoshu with elision in prose. Both group A and B seem to have been used in reciting waka. The hypermeters in group B are only realized by meeting the following condition: they have the same linguistic forms or approximately the same ones as those observed in elision in prose; group A are basically unrelated to elision and all the relevant linguistic forms show hypermeters. Elision in prose is one of the phonological phenomena based on everyday language. Through extensive research into these phenomena, I demonstrate the following two key points: 1) the hypermeters in group B can be characterized as one of phonological phenomena, 2) the hypermeters in group A are located as a phenomenon produced by a certain reciting practice which is different from the one adopted in everyday language and exists as a distinct pattern.

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There are some examples of rentaikei endings and rentaikei+yo endings with mu, ramu, or kemu (the mu-type auxiliary verbs) in the predicate position to express speculation or preference. These are divided into the following two categories. Category 1: Expressing a future situation unrelated to speculation or preference regarding the language agent. Category 2: Expressing an existing situation that is inconsistent with the expectation of the language agent. The future situation given in Category 1 exists only in the imagination of the language agent. In contrast, the language agent in Category 2 is confused by the situation that differs from expectations and imagines its existence once again. From the above, we conclude that these mu-type auxiliary verbs in Categories 1 and 2 have the function of "imagining a situation existing in the real world" (conceptualization).

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