Tense and Aspect in Modern Colloquial Japanese [1 ed.] 9780774854719, 9780774801584

Citation preview

Tense and Aspect in Modern Colloquial Japanese

Matsuo Soga

University of British Columbia Press

TENSE AND ASPECT IN MODERN COLLOQUIAL JAPANESE

This page intentionally left blank

Tense and Aspect in Modern Colloquial Japanese Matsuo Soga

University of British Columbia Press Vancouver

TENSE AND ASPECT IN MODERN COLLOQUIAL JAPANESE

The University of British Columbia 1983 All rights reserved

This book has been published with the aid of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Soga, Matsuo, 1931Tense and aspect in modern colloquial Japanese Includes index. Bibliography: p. ISBN 0-7748-0158-1 1. Japanese language — Tense. 2. Japanese language Aspect. 3. Japanese language — Spoken Japanese. I. Title. PL585.S643 495.6'5

C83-091141-3

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER 0-7748-0158-1

Printed in Canada

Contents

Prefacee 1. Introduction: Basic Concepts

vii 1

2. Tense Forms and Their Reference

36

3. Verb Classification

85

4. Aspectual Categories in Japanese

116

5. Concluding Remarks

199

Appendix

207

Notes

225

Bibliography

235

This page intentionally left blank

Preface

There are two main reasons for undertaking this study. The first is to clarify the notion of tense and aspect in Japanese, since there has been some confusion among scholars concerning their meanings, and concerning whether or not tense exists in Japanese. The second purpose is to describe categorically the functions and uses of so-called tense markers in Japanese, since they are very complex and fascinating. It is sometimes claimed that in Japanese the category of aspect, rather than tense, is central. There are various reasons for this claim, but the most important is that in Japanese a shift of viewpoint is much more common than in English, for example, which results in the complexity of actual tense reference. Thus, so-called past tense may refer to the present or the future as well as the past. The same can be said for so-called non-past tense. This invariably gives the impression that tense categorization in Japanese is arbitrary or chaotic, although it is neither. This book aims at the clarification of such problems. There have been several important works on tense and aspect in Japanese, but the observations set forth in this book are not always in agreement with theirs. Moreover, there has not been much written in English on Japanese tense and aspect. Therefore, it is hoped that this study will further stimulate interest in Japanese tense and aspect among English-speaking scholars. Chapter One deals with the general concepts of tense and aspect. Using diagrams similar to Reichenbach's, an attempt is made to clarify the general notion of tense and aspect. It is emphasized that tense is a matter of relative 'time points' of when. On the other hand, aspect is a matter of either the subjective ways of looking at an event, or the objective developmental stages of an event. The former categories include notions such as perfective, imperfective, durative, or punctual, while the latter include inceptive, progressive, resultative, and so on. The latter categories may also be considered to constitute subcategories of the former. This chapter attempts to show that, at least notionally, tense and aspect must co-exist, regardless of whether or not a language has a formal device to show them overtly. Chapter One suggests further that it is impossible to say that there is no tense in Japanese, or that aspect is essential, rather than tense, or vice versa. In Chapter Two, specific uses of the so-called tense markers -ta and -ru are described in relation to their tensal and aspectual categories. It is shown that, depending upon specific constructions, the tense markers -ru and -ta

viii

Preface

may be used in reference to completive and incompletive aspects, respectively, although normally the former is used in reference to incompletive and the latter to completive aspects. Chapter Three deals with the semantic characteristics of verbs, i.e., stativity, non-stativity, durativity, and punctuality, which are essential to the notion of aspect. The criteria for distinguishing their categories in Japanese are proposed and examined. Chapter Four deals with aspectual subcategories and their semantic and grammatical structures; their order of occurrence is also examined. It is suggested that aspectual categories are complex, since they are not only concerned with verbs but also with phrases and sentences. Above all, it is suggested that the structure -te iru, which is normally associated with the progressive aspect, may actually be ambiguous in several ways. Chapter Five is limited to concluding remarks, and it is suggested that the dichotomy of "completive' and 'incompletive' aspects might reflect the native intuition of the English speakers, whereas the dichotomy of 'realized' and 'unrealized' aspects may reflect the Japanese native intuition more accurately than the dichotomy of the completive and incompletive aspects. This work may have left important questions unanswered, and it may invite many more from the reader; however, those who are interested in the problems of tense and aspect in Japanese may well find it useful. It is also hoped that it will be of some value to those who are interested in the general theory of tense and aspect. I owe gratitude to many people for their help in the completion and publication of this book. In particular, it has been published with the aid of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; in addition I wish to thank the Canada Council for the Leave Fellowship in 1977-78, which made possible the initiation of my research for this work. I would also like to thank Noriko Akatsuka, Sarah J. Bell, Masaru Kajita and Akira Miura, who read part or all of the manuscript and whose insight provided me with invaluable comments and suggestions; various anonymous readers, who made constructive criticisms; and Masatake Muraki and Taiji Fujimura, who discussed with me many of the problems contained in this work. I am grateful to my students, who heard some of the generalizations in this work and asked me relevant questions; to Irene Rebrin for her Russian example sentences; and to the University of British Columbia Press for their confidence in my work, and for their editorial and other assistance in its publication. Although the suggestions of these people greatly improved the quality of this book, all the short-comings and errors that it may contain are mine alone, since I did not always follow their good advice. Lastly, my thanks are due to my wife, Lillian, for her constant encouragement and technical assistance.

1 Introduction: Basic Concepts

A grammar of Japanese must deal with the following kinds of sentences: (1) a. Tanaka-san wa Tokyo de iti-nen-kan hataraita.'f Mr. Tanaka TM$ in for one year worked "Mr. Tanaka worked in Tokyo for one year." b. * Tanaka-san wa Tokyo ni iti-nen-kan tuita. arrived Lit. "Mr. Tanaka arrived in Tokyo for one year." (2) a. Tanaka-san wa Tokyo de hataraite iru. working is "Mr. Tanaka is working in Tokyo." b. Tanaka-san wa Tokyo ni tuite iru. arrive is i." Mr. Tanaka is arriving in Tokyo." ii. "Mr. Tanaka has arrived in Tokyo." t The Japanese sentences in this work will be transcribed more or less phonemically, and the inflectional morphemes will not be hyphenated; a transcription such as hataraita, "worked," will be used instead of its morphemic version of hatarak-ta. Words which are composed of more than one lexical unit will be hyphenated as in Tanaka-san, "Mr. Tanaka," or kekkonsuru, "to marry." Also, hereafter, ungrammatical, non-sensical or unacceptable sentences and phrases or wrong translations will be marked by an asterisk - *. A marginal sentence will be marked by a question mark - ? Literal translation of a grammatical or ungrammatical sentence will be marked by "lit." Also, to facilitate reading, proper names in example sentences will be given in English spelling. Thus, Tokyo instead of Tookyoo, and John instead of Zyon will be used, for example. $

TM=topic marker.

2

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

(3) a. Tokyo ni iru toki kare ni atta. am when he with met "When (I) was in Tokyo, (I) met him." b. Tokyo ni ita toki kare ni atta. was "When (I) was in Tokyo, (I) met him." (4) a. Tanaka-san wa kekkon-site iru. married is i. "Mr. Tanaka is married, (i.e. He has a wife at present.)" ii. "Mr. Tanaka has had the experience of marriage. (i.e. He may or may not be married at the present time.)" Sentence (la) is perfectly grammatical, but (1b) is to be rejected as ungrammatical. In (2), although both of the examples share the superficially identical grammatical form -te iru, (2 b) cannot be interpreted as indicating an on-going action. In (3) the embedded verb tense forms are different, although both (3 a) and (3 b) refer to the same situation. In (4), the meaning is ambiguous. It can refer to the subject's present marital status or to his past experience. In order to explain these kinds of problems, we must understand the system of tense and aspect phenomena in Japanese. However, first it is necessary to understand the general notions of tense and aspect, along with a basic framework within which they can be described. 1.1

TENSE

Typically, tense is a grammatical category for relating the time of an event, action or state expressed by a verb1 to the present moment or to the speech time of 'now.' Thus, tense is a deictic category that depends upon the speaker's ego-centric viewpoint of 'now.' It normally indicates whether an event happened in the past, occurs in the present moment, or will happen in the future. It is necessary here to define exactly the meaning of 'speech time,' 'now,' or 'the present moment' that becomes the basic point of time for tense phenomena. Strictly speaking, one may even consider that there is no time period that can be characterized by 'now' or 'present moment.' Every time point belongs either to the past or to the future. Thus, for example, the time point of even one second before the exact point of 'now' must belong to the past. On the other hand, 'now' or 'the present moment' may stand for a period of time which may be one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year, or even longer. Thus, this day, this week, this month, this year, this semester, and even this century can all belong to 'present' or 'now,' which is

Introduction: Basic Concepts

3

determined by the context or the subjective viewpoint in a particular conversation or situation. (Similar cases exist in locative pronouns. 'Here' may refer to a corner in a room, to a building, or even to a country or a continent.) In what follows, therefore, terms such as 'the moment of speech,' 'the present moment' or 'now' should be understood to include various possibilities of a period of time that can stand in contrast to the past and/or future. Likewise, in this work the term 'speech' in 'the moment of speech' or 'the time of speech act' must be understood as representing a typical encoding situation. It can certainly be an actual speech, but it can be writing, too. 'Speech time' can be the moment of writing or even some other mode of communication. It is possible to relate the time of event to the time of speech by either a grammatical or a lexical device. However, we say that a language has tense as long as the time reference is obligatorily and systematically expressed by some grammatical device. Thus, we may say that Japanese has tense, since a past event, for example, is normally distinguished from a non-past event by the systematic formal opposition, Verb-ta vs. Verb-ru. On the other hand, when we say that a language does not have tense, it means that the language does not obligatorily relate the time of an event and the time of a speech act by a specific grammatical device, although the relationship between them may very well be expressed by the use of adverbs similar to 'now,' 'then," "in the future," and so on. For example, depending upon the context, wo mai shu in Chinese may mean "I was buying books," "I am buying books," or "I will be buying books," although for "I bought books," the completive aspect marker le normally seems to co-occur. Tense categories have traditionally been considered to have three subcategories: past, present, and future. In general, the past tense is supposed to be in reference to an event in the past, the present tense, to that at present, and the future tense, to that in the future. Thus, the relationship between the speech time and the event time may be represented by a time axis of the following kind: (5) *i

tQ

tk

In (5) the zero time point t0 corresponds to the speech time of "now," and any point to its left, represented as ti is 'past,' while any point to its right, tk is 'future.' In a language that has tense, an event occurring at tj, for example, is expressed by a form different from that expressing an event at t0, or at t tk Likewise, an event relevant to t0 may be represented by a form different from the one used for expressing an event at tk or at ti. The tense system described here is a simple but basic one, in which events are viewed in

4

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

relation to the deictic point t0. It is sometimes called 'basic' or 'primary tense system.' In fact, however, an actual tense system seems to be a little more complicated. The notion of the 'reference time' must now be introduced for further discussion of tense.2 For example, in a sentence such as "I had read the book" three points of time are involved: speech time, reference time and event time. The event time precedes the reference time, which in turn precedes the speech time. To analyze the example further, the event is seen from the point of view of the reference time. The reference time is seen as past from the point of view of the speech time, but the event time is viewed further in the past with respect to the reference time. In general, the basic reference point of time for 'present' is at t0, which is the same as speech time. For 'past' it is at tj, and for 'future,' it is at tk. In sentences such as "I went yesterday" and "I will go tomorrow," the reference points of time are "yesterday" and "tomorrow," respectively, which happen to be the same as the points of event time. On the other hand, the so-called past perfect tense shows that all those three points of time are different. If we take, for example, ti as the reference point of time from which we may view an event occurring prior to that, a time point such as ti-1 (i.e. ti minus one) for that event must be considered 'past of past,' which is also called 'anterior past' by Reichenbach.3 Thus, for example, in "I had read it yesterday," the reference time is "yesterday," but the event is interpreted to have taken place before that. An event at ti+1 (i.e. tiplus one) may also be viewed from the reference time ti. That is, ti+\ is later than £/, but prior to t§. It is, therefore, 'future in the past' or 'posterior past.' An English construction such as "was to do" may be given as an example in a sentence such as "He was to go to Europe two months later." On the other hand, we can view an event at t^-\ or £&+i from the reference time t^. £& -1 is after to, but it is before t^. The time point t^+1 is after t^. Then, the former is 'past in the future' or 'anterior future,' and the latter, 'future of future' or 'posterior future.' English sentences such as "He will have done it by tomorrow" and "He will be studying English after September" may be considered appropriate examples for the respective cases.4 The system in which an event is detached in time from the reference time (which may also be separated from the speech time) is somewhat different in nature from the basic tense system in that the secondary tense is involved. In such a case, the relative point of time involving the notion of anteriority or posteriority in relation to the reference time becomes important. We can call such a system the 'relative tense system'5 or 'secondary tense system' in contrast to the basic tense system. Both of those tense systems may be described by means of diagrams as in (6). Reichenbach uses such diagrams, and on the basis of these he attempts to explain tense phenomena in general.6 Since they are extremely useful for subsequent discussion, they are reproduced in (6).7 In the diagrams, Sstands for speech time, R for reference time, and E for event time.

Introduction: B'asic Concepts

(6) a. Present:

5

I see John. S,R

b. Simple Past:

I saw John.

c. Simple Future:

I shall see John.

d. Present Perfect:

I have seen John.

e. Past Perfect:

I had seen John.

/. Future Perfect:

I shall have seen John.

R,E S,R

E

E

S,R

E

R

S

S

E E

R

g. Present, Extended: I am seeing John. h. Simple Past, Extended:

I was seeing John.

/'. Simple Future, Extended:

I will be seeing John.

y. Present Perfect, Extended:

I have been seeing John.

k. Past Perfect, Extended:

I had been seeing John.

/. Future Perfect, Extended:

I shall have been seeing John.

S

S,R

R,E

S

S,R

E

E

S,R

E

R

S

5

E

R

The diagrams and terminology in (6) need a few comments. Some modification is also needed for them to be more useful to the following discussion. The time points E, R and S must be interpreted as either durative stretches or punctual points of time. Although Reichenbach treats everything under the label of 'tense,' notions such as 'extended' and 'perfect' are concerned with states of events rather than with time points. Therefore, they seem to be different in nature from mere tense. They should be considered aspectual,

6

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

although they also involve 'time points' to a certain extent. (Their aspectual characteristics will be more fully discussed in the next section.) Diagram (6a) is merely labeled as 'present.' However, a better term would be 'simple present' which Reichenbach uses elsewhere in his book.8 It contrasts conceptually and terminologically with 'simple past' and 'simple future' on the one hand,and with 'present perfect' on the other. Likewise, 'present, extended' for (6g) may be understood as 'simple present, extended,' which then will contrast with 'simple past, extended' and 'simple future, extended.' (Those terminological contrasts will be useful later, for the purpose of generalization.) With respect to the diagrams representing 'perfect tense,' it would be preferable to extend E over to the point of R by either a dotted line or a solid line; this is done in the diagrams in (7). The dotted line is to show the relevancy of past event E at the time of R. The solid line is to indicate that event E continued up to but not beyond R. The meanings of 'perfect' are complex, but they all have some relevance to the reference time. The modified diagrams (7) are intended to indicate the meaning of such 'relevancy.' For 'extended tense,' a solid line just over R is both preceded and followed by a dotted line, to indicate that E starts before and continues after R. These modifications would be more indicative of the states of events rather than their time; that is, they are more relevant to aspect than tense. Diagram (6c) should be understood as relevant to a sentence such as "I am to see John" rather than just "I shall see John." Notice that (6c) is the exact mirror image of (6oT), the 'present perfect.' If (6d) is relevant to 'present,' (6c) must likewise be relevant to it. On the other hand, if the example sentence "I shall see John" is understood in terms of a sentence such as "I shall see John tomorrow," or "I shall see him this afternoon," then it should be represented as S — R, E, which is the exact mirror image of (6&). A similar modification is in order for (6/)« In view of these considerations, the following modified diagrams and nomenclatures may be proposed along with unchanged ones: (7) a. Simple Present:

I see John.

b. Simple Past:

I saw John.

c. Simple Future:

d. Present Perfect:

S,R,E

R,E

S

S

R,E

E

S,R

I shall see John (tomorrow). I have seen John.

i

7

Introduction: Basic Concepts 11.

E e. Past Perfect:

I had seen John.

S,R

i.

E

R

S

E

R

S

S

E

R

S

E

R

ii.

/. Future Perfect:

I shall have seen John,

i. ii.

g. Simple Present, Extended:

I am seeing John. S,R,E

h. Simple Past, Extended:

I was seeing John.

S

R,E /. Simple Future, Extended:

I will be seeing John (tomorrow).

S

R,E

j. Present Perfect, I have been seeing Extended:9 John.

E k. Past Perfect, Extended:

S,R

I had been seeing John.

E /. Future Perfect, Extended:

R

S

I shall have been seeing John.

S

E

R

The above modified diagrams and nomenclatures lead us to the following generalizations:10 (8) a. If R precedes S, the tense is 'past.' b. If R coincides with 5", the tense is 'present.' c. If R follows 5", the tense is 'future.'

8

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

d. If R and E coincide, the tense is characterized by 'simple.' e. If E precedes R, the tense is 'perfect.' /. If E extends over R, the tense is 'extended.' The above generalizations are tentative; however, notice that the first three are primarily concerned with the positions of 5" and R, and the last three with E and R. Notice also that the generalizations depend upon the positional characteristics ofS, R and E in relation to one another, except (8/) which is partially concerned with the nature of E in relation to R. In addition, the generalizations in (8) should suggest that tensal notions such as 'past,' 'present,' and 'future' are dependent upon the relationship between 5" and R, while notions such as 'extended,' 'perfect,' and 'simple,' depend upon E and R. In the light of the above generalizations, diagram (5) may now be re-examined. We must now realize that tQ in (5) corresponds to 5", and t{, to R and E coinciding, which produces the diagram R, E — S for 'simple past.' Likewise, t^ must be understood as R and E coinciding, which produces the diagram S — R, E, which is the 'simple future.' If we have £/ _ i for E, then ti must be R, producing E — R — S, which is the 'past perfect.' In the same way, we can associate diagram (5) with the others in (7). The diagrams in (6) and (7) are two of the most basic ones. One may wish to add diagrams such as R — E — S for a form such as "was to do," and S — R — E for a sentence such as "I shall be going to see him," as exemplified by Reichenbach.11 Let us examine the nomenclature in (6) and (7) again. It involves 'aspectual' notions such as 'perfect' and 'extended,' and may not be entirely satisfactory from the tensal point of view. In talking about tense, it may be more satisfactorily characterized by using terms such as 'anterior' or 'posterior' relative to R. Reichenbach also used such terms which effectively indicate the combined basic and relative tense systems.12 Diagram (9) gives his terminology: (9) a. E - R - S b. E,R — S

Anterior Past

Past Perfect

Simple Past

Simple Past

c. R- E- S

d. R- S,E

Posterior Past

e. R- S- E

f. E — S,R

Anterior Present

Present Perfect

g. S,R,E

Simple Present

Present

Introduction: Basic Concepts

h. S,R — E

Posterior Present

Simple Future

Anterior Future

Future Perfect

Simple Future

Simple Future

9

i. S-E-R

J. S,E — R k. E- S- R

IS — R,E m. S — R — E

Posterior Future

—

(Reichenbach lists the names in the center column under the label of 'New Names,' and those in the right column under the label of Traditional Names.') The names listed in the center column are entirely tensal, not aspectual, in the sense that they are concerned only with points in time. Notice that the notions of 'past,' 'present,' and 'future' still depend upon the positional relationships between 5" and R,13 while the notions of 'anteriority' and 'posteriority' depend upon those between E and R. We may also notice that E is only indirectly related to 5" by way of R. That is, the relationship between S and E may not be directly tied to the notions of 'past,' 'present,' and 'future.' For example, in (9e) the basic tense characterization is 'past' although E is to occur after S. The underlined part of a sentence such as "I was to see him tomorrow but if he is busy, I won't be able to," may be considered relevant to (9e). We may also note that the so-called 'progressive' sentences are not listed in (9). This may be because they cannot be characterized merely from the tensal point of view. Tensally, a sentence such as "He was reading" can only be characterized the same as (9b). Reichenbach also discusses tense in complex sentences such as those in (10). The occurrences of E, R and 5" relative to one another are given on the right of the example sentences, which are from Reichenbach:14 (10) a. I have not decided which Cj: E± ~S,Ri (C = Clause) train I shall take. Cy£/?2 ~~ ^2 b. I did not know that you would be here.

C\: R±, E± — S ^2-^2 ~~ ^' ^2

c. I had mailed the letter C\: E\—R\ — S when John came and told C^'Rj, &2 ~ $ me the news. €3: #3, £3 ~ S d. He was healthier when I saw him than he is now.

C\\ R\, E\ — S C^ R% £2 ~ S C3: S, R3, E3

10

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

e. He telephoned before he came.

C\: R\, E± — S CyRj, &2~ $

As we can see in the examples presented so far, both the basic and relative tense systems in English, whether the sentences are simple or complex, can be represented on a time axis in terms of the positional relationships between speech time, reference time, and event time. It is important in those diagrams to note that the matter of tense is a matter of the positional relationships of those time points. Let us see whether or not the same kind of device can be used for representing the Japanese tense system. The tense relations of the example sentences below may be represented as shown to the right: (11) a. Watakusi wa soo omou. I TM so think. "I think so." b. Kekka wa asita wakaru. result TM tomorrow understand. "(I) will know the result tomorrow." c. Kekka wa kinoo wakatta. yesterday understood "(I) knew the result yesterday." d. Kare wa uti ni kaette iru. he home to return is "He has returned home (and is at home at present)." e. Kare wa uti ni kaette ita. was "He had returned home (and was at home)." /. Asita no ima-goro wa. tomorrow of about now TM uti ni kaette iru. home to return is "About this time tomorrow, (I) will have returned home (and I will be at home)."

S,R,E

5

R,E

R,E

S

E

S,R

E

R

S

S

E

R

11

Introduction: Basic Concepts

g. Kare wa syoosetu o go-satu. he TM novel OAfJiive vol. kaite iru. write is "He has written five novels (so far)." h. Kare wa sono toki made ni. that time by syoosetu o go-satu kaite ita.

E

S,R

E

R

S

was "He had written five novels by that time." /'. Rainen made ni kare wa go satu-gurai. next year by he about five vol. syoosetu o kaite iru to omou. U / T \ ^L- i >.L *. L

think -11 u

-^

(I) think that he will have written about five novels by next year."

S E R (The diagram is only for

tne

underlined part of the sentence.)

/ Hon o ima kaite iru. book OM now write is "(I) am writing a book now."

S,R,E

k. Hon o sono toki kaite ita. that time was "(I) was writing a book then." /. Asita no ima-goro wa. tomorrow about now TM hon O kaite iru to omou.15 think

R,E

S

R,E

(The diagram is only for tne underlined part of

"(I) think that I will be writing a book ththesentence about this time tomorrow."

fOM = object marker.

S

12

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

Diagrams (lla), (lib) and (lie) should be self-evident. Diagrams (lie?), (11#) and (ll/) are those of resultative sentences which refer to states resulting from the previous events and relevant at reference time. Much like 'extended' or 'progressive' sentences in (6) and (7), the resultative states may continue even after reference time. However, they are different from both the Japanese and English progressive sentences in that, for the resultative sentences, event time must precede reference time. Diagrams (llg), (11/0 and (ll/) are partially like English 'perfect' sentences in that the past event is considered to be relevant up to, but not beyond, reference time. They indicate 'experience' and are sometimes called 'experiential sentences.'16 They are similar to resultative sentences in that event time must precede reference time. Sentences (ll/), (11 A;), and (ll/) correspond to English 'extended' or 'progressive' sentences and their diagrams are the same as those for English. Although the above examples must be considered extremely basic, they seem to reveal the essential factors affecting the occurrences of -ta and -ru forms as far as the final verbs of the example sentences are concerned.17 That is, the -ta forms of the final verbs are related to the position of R with respect to that of S. If R precedes 5", -ta occurs; otherwise, -ru occurs. The semantic context in which -ta occurs indicates that it is associated with 'past,' and the context of -ru, that it is associated with 'present' and 'future.' Although the sentences and diagrams above include both tensal and aspectual characteristics, the above generalization certainly gives the tensal nature of -ta and -ru forms. Thus, the -ta forms are usually called 'past tense forms,' and the -ru forms, 'non-past tense forms.' (Those names, however, are only tensal names. -Ta and -ru may also be used to indicate aspects that will be discussed in the next section.) The following names can now be given to the sentences in (11): (12) a. b. c. d. e. /. g. h.

Simple Non-Past Simple Past Non-Past Resultative Past Resultative Non-Past Experiential Past Experiential Non-Past Progressive Past Progressive

(11 a, lib) (lie) (11 d, 1 If) (lie) (11 g, 11 /) (11 h) (1 Ij, 11 /) (Ilk)

'Past' and 'non-past' are of the basic tense system in Japanese as observed above, and the resultative and experiential sentences show the existence of a relative tense system as well. Strictly from the tensal point of view, we may be able to call both the 'non-past resultative' and the 'non-past experiential,' 'anterior non-past.' We may also be able to call both the 'past resultative' and

Introduction: Basic Concepts

13

the 'past experiential,' 'anterior past.' Notice here that, as far as the tensal characteristics are concerned, the resultative and experiential sentences are considered to be the same, since the positional relationships of their speech time, reference time and event time are considered to be identical. Their differences, as can be observed in the differences of dotted and solid lines above the time axis, must be considered aspectual.18 The observations that have been made so far are based upon the most basic and normal types of example sentences. Thus, in English we say that "-ed" is the past tense marker, "0," the present tense marker, and "will," the future tense marker. Likewise, we say that -ta is the past tense marker, and -ru, the non-past tense marker in Japanese. There are, however, some problems associated with these traditional labels. For example, the three tense categories of English are by no means universally accepted by grammarians.19 It is possible to justify the view that there are only two tense categories in English: past and non-past. This is because the so-called future tense can be associated with modality, since "will" and "shall" are auxiliary verbs just like "can," "may," "must," etc. Notice that "will" and "shall" can be used to express the volition of the speaker rather than an event in the future. Thus, in a sentence such as "I shall return," the expression of volition seems to be more basic, and the meaning of future time to be collateral; that is, the meaning of future is to be regarded as the consequence of the meaning of volition.20 The difference between 'present tense' and 'future tense' then becomes a matter of modality rather than one of tense. Given the fact that a 'present tense' sentence such as "I can go tomorrow" or even "I go tomorrow" must be represented as 5" — R,E, the diagram for 'simple future' in (7) points to the tensal similarity between sentences such as "I can go tomorrow" and "I will go tomorrow." When we see the English basic tense categories in this light, they are rather similar to the two Japanese basic tense categories: past and non-past represented by -ta and -ru, respectively.21 In view of these considerations and using the notions of 'anteriority' and 'posteriority' in (9), the generalizations in (8) may be modified as follows: (13) a. b. c. d. e. /.

If R precedes 5", it is 'past.' Otherwise, it is 'non-past.' If E precedes R, it is 'anterior.' If E follows R, it is 'posterior.' If E and R coincide, it is 'simple.' If E extends over R, it is 'extended' or progressive.' (This is the same as (8-f), and it is actually an aspectual statement).

If we replace 'present' and 'future' with the term 'non-past,' in addition to (9 a), (9 b) and (9 c, d, e}, we will have the following: 'anterior non-past' for

14

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

sentences such as "I have seen him" or "I will have seen him by tomorrow," 'simple non-past' for sentences such as "I see John" or "I will see John tomorrow," and 'posterior non-past' for sentences such as "I will see John after that" or "I am to see him." Those modifications show six categorical notions for the English basic and relative tense systems. When those categories are further examined, it can be noticed that the two basic tense differences of 'past' and 'non-past' must be represented22 by the systematic formal differences of "-ed" and 0. On the other hand, formal differences to represent the relative tense notions of 'anteriority' and 'posteriority' do not have to be especially systematic. For example, a notion such as 'anterior past' may not necessarily be the monopoly of 'past perfect' sentences. It can also be expressed by a simple past tense form as in "I already saw him by then" or "I saw him before that," both of which indicate the time relationship of E — R — S. It is true that those sentences are aspectually different from "I had seen him," but their time relationships of E, R and 5" must be considered the same. In this sense, we may say that the basic tense categories of 'past' and 'non-past' in English are primary, while the relative tense categories (i.e. anterior past, posterior past, anterior non-past, and posterior non-past) are secondary. One may also say that the former is based upon a narrower sense of the term 'tense,' and the latter, upon a broader sense. One thing common to both of those views, however, is that they are concerned with the event described by the verb in relation to the time points of 'when.' In this sense, they are both tensal. Their difference lies in whether or not the categorical differences are indicated obligatorily and systematically by corresponding formal differences. In spite of the generalizations in (13), and the fact that tense typically relates event time to speech time by way of reference time, the relationship between natural time and event time may not always coincide with the expressed tense marker.23 In English, for example, the past tense form may be used in a complex sentence in reference to the present as in "If I had money, I would fly to New York." The past tense form in such a sentence refers only to the present. Such a sentence, however, must be considered not primarily within the realm of tense but rather within the category of modality. The past tense form had, for example, in the conditional sentence above, is primarily modal and only superficially tensal. In Japanese too, the -ta form may not always be used for an event at some past time. Observe the following sentence: (14) Asita kita to site mo, dame da. tomorrow came if no good is "Even if (you) came tomorrow, (it) would be no good." In (14) the underlined verb form of the embedded conditional clause has -ta, but the event referred to is supposed to be in the future time of tomorrow.

Introduction: Basic Concepts

15

Apparently in (14) the matters of aspect as well as mood seem to be involved. Aspectually, kita in (14) must be interpreted as 'completive.' There are also cases in which the -ru form may be used in reference to a clearly past event, as in the following: (15) Kesa uti o deru toki ame ga hutte kita this morning home AM\ get out when rain SM\ fall came "When (I) was leaving home this morning, it started to rain." AM = adverbial marker; SM = subject marker. Notice that the verb deru, "to get out/leave," has the -ru form, but its reference is clearly to the past, as the English translation shows; however, the verb of the main sentence is in the -ta form, the normal past tense form. Apparently, the matter of aspect seems to be involved again; the relevant one here is interpreted as 'incompletive.' Aspectual matters associated with -ta and -ru will be more fully discussed in the next section. In some cases, a psychological shift of the speech time 'now' may take place; -ta and -ru in Japanese and "-ed" and 0 in English may not be relevant to the past and the non-past, respectively. Observe the following examples: (16) Kyoto ni [ iru~\toki Tanaka-san ni atta. L ita J in Pis ~| when Mr. Tanaka with met. |_ was] "When (I) was in Kyoto, (I) met Mr. Tanaka." In (16), the embedded verb refers to the past situation regardless of whether the non-past or past tense form occurs. Aspectually, both must be considered 'incompletive,' but the difference between them lies in the psychological shift of the speech time. The use of the non-past tense form in the embedded sentence in (16) may be interpreted to indicate that the psychological speech time for the speaker has shifted from the present to the past, which is the reference time. On the other hand, the use of the -ta form for the embedded verb indicates that the speaker has not shifted speech time. Thus, the reference time point in the past precedes the speech time, and the expected -ta form occurs. In general, embedded stative verbs24 behave very much the same way as iru in (16) when the main sentence is in the past tense form. Apart from complex sentences, the non-past tense form in a simple sentence may often be used in both Japanese and English to indicate past events or actions. Such a use is closely associated with the so-called 'historical

16

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

present,' and brings the past effectively to the present or rather, we bring ourselves back to the past time. In sports broadcasts as well as in conversational English, the above is extremely common.25 In some cases, the -ta form in a simple sentence in Japanese may even refer to the present or the future, as in (17) and (18). (17) Aa, boom wa koko ni atta. Oh ball TM here in existed "Oh, the ball is here!" (Lit. "Oh, the ball was here!") (18) Asita wa kaigi ga atta. tomorrow TM meeting SM existed "Tomorrow, there will be a meeting." (Lit. "Tomorrow, there was a meeting.") Notice that in (17) the past tense marker -ta is used in reference to the present, and in (18), the same form is used in reference to the future. Apparently, the -ta forms in these examples are irrelevant to the 'completive' aspect, since a stative verb such as aru, "exist," is neutral to the notion of completion even if it is in the past tense form. Semantically, the use of -ta in (17) indicates that the speaker has been looking for the ball and that he has just found out that the ball has been 'here.' On the other hand, the use of -ta in (18) is associated with what is sometimes called 'recall.' Associated with the meaning of recall in English, the past tense may sometimes be used for the present time. Sentences such as "What was your name?" or "Did you want to go?" may certainly be in reference to the present moment. Here again, some kind of modality is obviously involved which transforms the non-past tense form to the past tense form. Tense in narrative also needs some comment. It is often the case in a narrative that the author frequently changes his point of view or his psychological encoding time for the sake of vividness. Observe the following: (19) Aru hi no kuregata no koto dearu (non-past). Hitori certain day of evening of matter is a person no genin ga Rasyoomon no sita de amayami o matte of outcast SM Rashoo-gate of under at rain-stop OM was ita_(pasi).Hiroi i mon no sita niwakono otoko no hoka waiting spacious gate of under at this man of other i

nidare mo inai (non-past).26 anyone even non-existent

Introduction: Basic Concepts

17

"It was (original: non-past) toward evening one day. An outcast was waiting under the Rashoo-gate for the rain to stop. There was (original: non-past) no one else beside him under the roof of the spacious gate." Example (19) may make the matter of Japanese tense appear rather chaotic, although in the English translation tense is consistent. From a stylistic point of view, however, those shifts in tense in Japanese are considered quite normal and effective. What is happening in (19) is that the author shifts his encoding time back to story time, and by synchronizing encoding time, reference time and event time, he succeeds in creating the illusion that the events are happening at the present moment.27 Although the diagrams in (6) and (7) are very useful for explaining cases in which natural time and 5", E and R coincide with the expressed tense categories, they will have to be modified slightly in order to account for the psychological speech time (or encoding time) as against the real speech time. We may have to introduce a time point S' and stipulate that it is the psychological speech time (or encoding time) synchronized with R andE. So the diagram for the last sentence, for example, of (19) should look like (20).

(In (20), E is interpreted as durative, since the verb does not refer to a point-like event but to a state which is neutral to the idea of completion.) The diagram above is useful for explaining the 'historical present' as well, the underlying forms of which are in the past tense. Since they are in reference to past events, they can be replaced by past tense forms, although the vividness might be lost by such a replacement. Therefore, the 'historical present' must be the result of some kind of transformation triggered by the shift of the deictic point. Example (16) may be explained by the same principle. The non-past tense form of the embedded sentence is the result of the shift of the deictic point. On the other hand, in the case of the corresponding past tense form, the deictic point has not shifted. In this section, I have discussed the following: i. Tense is a grammatical category that typically indicates the rela-

18

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

tionships of speech time (5") to event time (E) by way of reference time (R). If a language has tense, the tense differences are systematically expressed by formal device. If a language does not have tense, such differences are not expressed in grammar. ii. Tense may be divided into two different kinds: the basic or primary tense and the relative or secondary tense. The former depends upon the relationships between S and R, and the latter, between R and E. Such relationships can be represented as positional relationships on a time axis. iii. If three basic tense categories are considered for English, they will follow the generalizations below: a. If R precedes 5", the tense is 'past.' b. If R and S coincide, the tense is 'present.' c. If R follows S, the tense is 'future.' iv. English actually may be considered to have two basic tense categories: past and non-past. Its so-called future tense is really marked by a volitional modality. If so, (uib) and (iiic) above may be combined and be stated as 'Otherwise, the tense is non-past.' In Japanese, the basic tense categories are past and non-past expressed by -ta and -ru, respectively. v. In the relative tense system, E is viewed from R in terms of whether E is 'anterior' or 'posterior.' If they are simultaneous, the tense categorization is qualified by the term 'simple.'28 vi. A name such as 'Anterior Past' or 'Posterior Future' combines both the basic and the relative tense notions. One thing common to both of these notions is that they are concerned with time points, or with 'when' rather than 'how.' Concern with such 'time points' is the essence of the notion of tense. In this sense, a name such as 'Past Progressive' or 'Past Perfect' does not have the exclusive tensal characterization of a sentence. It mixes the notions of tense and aspect. vii. If tense is interpreted only in terms of the basic tense system, this is a narrower view of it. Alternatively, if tense is interpreted to include the relative tense system too, then it is based upon the broader view of the term. Grammatically, basic tense is more rigid and consistent, and relative tense, less so. viii. Sometimes, both in English and Japanese, a 'past tense form' may not necessarily be in relation to a past reference time or to a past event. Also, a 'non-past tense form' may be used in relation to a past reference time or to a past event. Several reasons can be identified

Introduction: Basic Concepts

19

for such discrepancies. We must note that such tense forms usually have special meanings apart from time points. Matters of 'aspect' or of 'modality' are often involved making the surface forms of the verbs either 'past tense' or 'non-past tense.' Moreover, in some cases, psychological shift of 'speech time' is responsible for such discrepancies.

1.2

ASPECT

In general, aspect is concerned with the status of an action, event, or state, with respect to its duration or punctuality. The definition of this concept has so far been rather confusing in both Japanese and Western grammars. In this section, an attempt will be made to characterize the notion of aspect, so that in the subsequent discussion there will be no confusion. In most of the traditional descriptions of Japanese grammar, the category of aspect has been discussed either very little or not at all. When it is discussed, the description is usually concerned with morphological units and their functions for the formation of verb phrases that have 'aspectual' or 'temporal' meanings. It is not particularly concerned with the semantic characterization of the verbs or verb phrases from aspectual points of view. This does not mean, however, that the category of aspect is irrelevant in Japanese. Rather, the category has been treated together with tense, and hence, within the grammatical category of auxiliary, which in Japanese includes voice and modality as well. To the best of my knowledge, Kindaichi's article of 1950, "Kokugo Doosi no Ichi-bunrui (A Proposal for Japanese Verb Classification),"29 was the first that attempted an extensive subclassification of Japanese verbs from the point of view of aspectual characteristics. This was followed by his more extensive work, "Nihongo Doosi no Tense to Asupekuto (Tense and Aspect of Japanese Verbs)"30 in 1955, which stimulated Japanese linguists to produce further serious works on the subject. In spite of such works, however, the concept of aspect among Japanese grammarians has been rather elusive, partly because the same has been true of the European grammarians from whom Japanese linguists learned much, and partly because the terms and concepts of 'perfective (Japanese: kanryootai/kanseiteki}' and 'imperfective (Japanese mi/hu-kanryootai/mikanseiteki)1 have been confused with either tensal notions or the concepts of 'completion' or 'perfect.'31 The Japanese term kanryoo used to translate 'perfective' is normally associated with the notion of 'completion', and mi-kanryoo, used for 'imperfective,' with that of 'incompletion.' The former is closely tied with the past tense marker -ta , and the latter, with the non-past tense marker -ru.32 It is easy to understand this association, since

20

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

what happened in the past is easily identifiable as 'completed,' and what is to happen in the future or what has not happened as yet, as 'uncompleted.' However, such associations may not be exactly in accord with what is actually meant by the terms 'perfective' and 'imperfective.' Those terms appear to have been interpreted differently by various grammarians. Mikami (1972, p. 209), for example, uses the term kanseiteki for 'perfective,' and associates it with the notion of non-stativity (p. 215). He also uses mikanseiteki for 'imperfective' and associates it with the notion of stativity. He correctly states that a Japanese verb such as aru, "to exist," in Kinoo kizyoo ni syoohin ga atta, "There was a prize on the top of the desk yesterday," is 'imperfective' although it is in the past tense. At one point (p. 210) he tentatively suggests that if the past tense form of a verb indicates the completion of the action, the verb is a perfective verb; otherwise, it is an imperfective verb. Thus, in the case of the verb aru in the example above, there is a semantic possibility that "the prize may still be on the desk"; therefore, the verb is neutral with respect to the meaning of completion, and hence, it is an imperfective. He further postulates that a verb is perfective, if -te iru, the progressive or resultative formative, can be attached; otherwise, it is imperfective. He also suggests that if a verb in its non-past tense form refers to the present, it is imperfective, but if it refers to the future, it is perfective. Notice that his notions of 'perfective' and 'imperfective' are not necessarily associated only with the past or non-past tense. Apparently, for Mikami, the perfective and the imperfective are something entirely different from the past and non-past tenses, and are closely tied with the inherent semantic characteristics of the verb itself. In contrast to Mikami, there have been other grammarians who, in the treatment of aspect, have focused their attention on the developmental stages of an action or event. They capture the notion of aspect from the point of view of the development of an action or its process, such as inception, continuation, termination, result, repetition, etc.33 Such a treatment of aspect is different from that which is closely tied to the tense phenomena of the past and the non-past associated with kanryoo and mi-kanryoo, respectively. It is also very different from Mikami's approach, and from notions of perfective and imperfective. Thus, apparently, aspect has been treated by Japanese grammarians on the basis of different interpretations of the term. The fact that the very term 'aspect' has been variously translated into Japanese as tai, yootai, soo, sugata, andyoosoo can be seen as an additional indication that the concept of aspect in Japanese grammar may not have taken a firm root as yet. Therefore, it seems most proper to attempt to clarify first the meaning of 'aspect' upon which our subsequent discussion must be based. The concept of aspect used to differentiate the verbal inflections of the perfective and the imperfective in Slavic languages is categorically different

Introduction: Basic Concepts

21

from tense. In Russian, for example, the past tense may co-exist with the perfective or the imperfective aspect. In fact, most verbs are used either perfectively or imperfectively: for example, in saying the equivalent of the English expression "I worked yesterday," Russian speakers must use either the perfective, Ja porabotal vcera, or the imperfective, Ja rabotal vcera. The use of one form or the other is dictated by specific semantic characteristics that the speaker wants to express, such as whether the work was completed or not, or whether the work lasted for some time or not. Explaining the distinction between the perfective and the imperfective, Lyons (1969, p. 314) states that the use of the perfective implies that the action was completed, whereas the use of the imperfective does not say whether it was completed or not. (Notice here that Lyons' explanation is very similar to that given by Mikami.) In fact, the notions of perfective and imperfective have been explained in various other ways by different grammarians. However, these explanations all seem to reflect partial truth, still falling short of a total explanation. Forsyth (1970) gives a comprehensive account of the traditional views of aspect in Russian. Some of the most conspicuous are:34 (21) i. Perfective aspect expresses completed action, while imperfective aspect expresses continuous action. ii. Perfective aspect expresses shorter duration, and imperfective, longer duration. iii. Perfective presents the action expressed by the verb as something restricted and concentrated at some limits of its performance, be it the moment of origin or beginning of the action, or the moment of its completion or result; the imperfective presents the action in its course, in process of its performance, and consequently in its duration or repetition. Forsyth rejects (21i)35 since inceptives, which are really the beginning of action, not the completion, are expressed by the perfective form as in zasmeyalsya, "He laughed." Comrie (1976; p. 20) also cites examples from several languages and says, " . . . one cannot say that such perfective forms indicate the completion of a situation, when in fact they refer to its inception." Forsyth also repudiates (21ii)36 as not applicable to all verbs. This same point is rejected by Comrie, who says, " . . . both perfective and imperfective forms can be used in referring to the same length of time . . ." (p. 16). Definition (21 iii)37 is also unacceptable for the reason that it does not demonstrate any simple opposition of perfective and imperfective. Forsyth states, "duration-or-reception" cannot be "meaningfully opposed to 'limitedat-beginning-or-end.'" Comrie rejects the same point by saying, " . . .

22

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

perfective cannot be defined as describing a situation with limited, as opposed to unlimited, duration . . . " (p. 17). Forsyth's own view is that:38 (22) A perfective verb expresses the action as a total event summed up with reference to a single specific juncture, [but] imperfective does not inherently express the action as a total event summed up with reference to a single juncture. Forsyth maintains that 'completed' and 'uncompleted' meanings, often associated with the perfective and the imperfective, respectively, are the consequence of whether one regards an action as an 'indivisible whole' or not. The perfective does not necessarily entail actual completion of an action. It may even be used for a future event. On the other hand, an action completed and done with may be expressed by the imperfective, as vcera on dolgo cital, "Yesterday, he read for a long time." We can see, therefore, that the use of perfective and imperfective forms in Russian is based upon how the speaker regards the action described by the verb. We must say that it is subjective. If he regards the action or event in its totality, the perfective form is used; otherwise, the imperfective form is used.39 It must be emphasized here that the notion of aspect, or rather, of the dichotomy between the perfective and the imperfective as presented in (22), should be regarded as a grammatical matter for some languages but not necessarily for others. When we say that a language has a grammatical category of tense, it means that the tense reference is systematically expressed in the grammar. We could apply a similar criterion to the treatment of aspect. Viewed from this standpoint, we would have to say that English actually does not have the aspectual distinction of perfective and imperfective as defined in (22). Such a subjective distinction in English must be considered either neutralized or irrelevant. An English sentence such as "I read a novel last night" can be said either perfectively or imperfectively in Russian depending upon how the action is viewed by the speaker. Similarly, we will have to say that Japanese does not have the category of aspect either, since there is no grammatical device whereby the action viewed in its totality is systematically distinguished from the one viewed otherwise. It is true that the Japanese past tense may often be considered equivalent to perfective, since it usually presents the action or event in its totality. However, this does not necessarily mean that the non-past counterpart cannot also refer to an action or event in its totality. In fact, it may be used in this way in a sentence such as Asita watakusi wa sono syoosetu o yomu, "I will read that novel tomorrow," which may be translated into Russian either perfectively or imperfectively as in Zavtra ja procitaju etot roman (perfective) or Zavtraja

Introduction: Basic Concepts

23

budu citat' etot roman (imperfect!ve). Therefore, it is improper to equate the Japanese -ta and -ru with perfective and imperfective markers, respectively. After all, both -ta and -ru may or may not refer to an action or event in its totality. In spite of the characterization of aspect in (22) with respect to perfective and imperfective in Russian, the term 'aspect' in other languages has been used to cover various other phenomena, such as progessives, resultatives, repetitives, inceptives, or completives. Those notions are related to, but are somewhat different from, that defined in (22). Therefore, let us examine the notion of aspect in relation to those categories, and see how they in turn are related to perfective and imperfective. An English progressive form expresses only a part of an action or event which is still to be completed, and must be considered to be related to imperfectivity. The Japanese progressive forms (verb of action + te iru] must be regarded in the same way. Notice that progressive forms manifest durative situations in which their exact point of beginning or ending is irrelevant. The English perfect forms (have + V-ed) are sometimes associated with tense and sometimes with aspect.40 However, notions such as 'present perfect' and 'past perfect' suggest at least that the category of the basic tense must be separate from the concept of 'perfect.' The term 'perfect' indicates a state; therefore, if tense as discussed in the previous section is primarily the relationships between the time points of 5", R, and E, the notion of 'perfect' cannot fully be characterized by a tensal name such as 'anterior,' although it may be partially relevant. On the other hand, whether we should treat a 'perfect form' as a kind of perfective or imperfective is not immediately clear. In order to clarify it, we must first analyze the semantic characteristics of 'perfect.' McCawley mentions that the meaning of a 'perfect form' is ambiguous.41 He says that the present perfect may express the meaning of the effect of a past event (stative), the existence of a past event (existential), the state of affairs prevailing "throughout some interval from the past to the present" (universal), or 'hot news.'421 consider that it is most proper to associate the first three with the notion of imperfective aspect, and 'hot news' with that of perfective aspect. This is because the meanings of the first three are felt to be durative and continuous, while the meaning of 'hot news' is punctual and unanalyzable. One thing common to all those meanings, however, is the notion of 'completion.' Regardless of whether the speaker focuses his attention on the continuous post-completion stage or on the completion point itself, the meaning of the completion of the described event is always there. Therefore, the meanings of the first three, associated with imperfectivity, must be considered complex. The 'universal' perfect, for example,

24

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

must be considered to be composed of something like 'completive + postcompletive,' which will be associated with 'perfective + imperfective' resulting in 'imperfective' aspect for the entire phrase or sentence.43 As discussed above, the categorization of the various meanings of 'perfect' with respect to perfectivity and imperfectivity seems to be very complex; it is clear, however, that 'perfect' has aspectual meanings and must therefore be dealt with within the category of aspect, just as progressives must be treated in terms of the aspectual notions. The aspectual treatment of 'perfect,' however, does not neglect its tensal characteristics in the sense that it can be represented as 'anterior present,' or 'anterior past.' Nevertheless, such a tensal characterization cannot differentiate the aspectual differences between 'existential' and 'universal,' or between 'stative' and 'existential.' Similar to the English perfect forms, the Japanese resultative forms may be considered aspectual, although here again they are of a different kind of aspect from the perfective and the imperfective. The Japanese resultative form is either non-past, as in sinde iru, "is dead," or past, as in sinde ita, "was dead." Its meaning is like some of the English perfect sentences, especially like that of McCawley's 'stative.' It is concerned with the 'existing state' as a result of past action or event, and as such it must be associated with the notion of durativity and continuity, and hence, with imperfectivity. As in the case of English perfect sentences, the event or action associated with a resultative form must be one that is completed, and the action indicated by the verb must be viewed in its totality. For example, the phrase sinde iru, "is dead," must be composed of the 'completed' event that someone died, and of the fact that the result is present (or relevant) at the reference time of 'now.' Therefore, as far as the verb itself is concerned, the meaning must be associated with the perfective, although the entire phrase of sinde iru must be associated with the imperfective. Here again, we see that the aspectual character is complex. A sentence expressing an inceptive situation such as "I began to work," or its Japanese equivalent Hataraki-hazimeta, is relevant to a point in time and, as such, presents an unanalyzable situation. Therefore, it must be associated with perfectivity. Likewise, a sentence expressing the meaning of completion such as "I will finish the work at noon" must also be associated with perfectivity, in spite of the fact that the sentence refers to the future. On the other hand, an adjectival or copula predicate phrase, such as "It was good" or "He was a teacher," must be associated with imperfectivity even if the past tense form is used. Such a sentence is neutral to the meaning of 'completion.' It is necessary at this point to distinguish the tensal notion of 'past' from the aspectual notion of 'completive.' In Japanese, in particular, both notions may be expressed by the same form -ta, but their grammatical functions and semantic contents are certainly different. First, there is a difference with

Introduction: Basic Concepts

25

respect to co-occurring adverbs. For example, an adverb such as moo, "already," co-occurring with the -ta form forces us to interpret the verb as completive. Thus, a sentence such as Moo tabeta, "(I) have already eaten," is interpreted like an English present perfect sentence in which the stated completed event is relevant at the speech time of 'now.' In particular, with respect to its 'present relevancy,' it must be noted that its negative counterpart must be in the non-past tense form as in Mada tabenai, "(I) have not eaten yet." On the other hand, an adverb such asyuube, "last night," co-occurring with a -ta form forces us to interpret the verb as in the past tense form. Its negative counterpart is also in the past tense form -nakatta. Thus, Yuube tabeta, "(I) ate (it) last night," contrasts with Yuube tabenakatta, "(I) didn't eat (it) last night." Secondly, a -ta form such as benkyoo-site ita, "was studying," does not indicate the completive aspect at all. The phrase is in the past tense, but is irrelevant to completion. Thirdly, the completive aspect is not always indicated by the -ta form. For example, the so-called non-past tense form aku, "to open," in an embedded sentence such as To ga aku to senseiga haitte kita, "When the door opened, Mr. Tanaka came in," must be interpreted as completive. Notice here that in the embedded clause of to, such as in the sentence just given, the preceding verb must always be in its non-past or -ru form. In short, while -ta may or may not indicate the completive aspect, -ru on the surface may be relevant to the completive aspect. In addition, the notion of completion, as mentioned previously, is separate from the notion of 'perfective.' Although the meaning of completion may normally be associated with 'perfective,'44 some incompletive situations may also be associated with it. For example, a punctual verb sinu, "to die," in a phrase such as sinu tokoro da, "someone is about to die," must be interpreted as perfective in spite of the fact that the entire phrase expresses an imperfective situation. Notice that the verb sinu itself in the phrase is 'incompletive.' Also, a verb such as yomi-hazimeru, "begin to read," in a sentence such as Itu yomi-hazimeru ka, "When will you start reading?" must be associated with the perfective but is 'incompletive.' Thus, we can see that the completive aspect is associated with 'perfective,' but some incompletive aspects may also be associated with it. The relationships between the notions of 'completive,' 'incompletive,' 'perfective,' 'imperfective,' '-ta,' and '-ru,' may be represented by the following partially overlapping diagram: (23)

-ta completive perfective

incompletive imperfective -ru

26

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

Once we start talking about aspect not only in terms of perfective vs. imperfective but also in terms of inceptive, progressive, completive, perfect, resultative, and so on, the range of the notion of aspect must become different from the categories defined in (22). Forms expressing duration, punctuality, habituality, iterativity, and possibly others will have to be included. Thus the notion of 'aspect' is actually two-fold: one narrow and restricted as in (22), and the other, broad and including the categories mentioned above. The former is subjective, and the latter objective. The consideration of such varieties of category brings us to what is sometimes called in German 'Aktionsart."1 When linguists discuss aspect, they are certainly concerned with the perfective and imperfective categories, but in many cases they are also concerned with 'Aktionsart. '45 This concept is semantically concerned with the status of an action or event in its development in time, or with the way an action or event proceeds in time. The subcategories of ''Aktionsart' include those mentioned in the previous paragraph, which will presently be described and analyzed in relation to the perfective and imperfective notions. Thus, the notion of aspect is understood as a lexico-grammatical category of a verb or verb phrase concerned with the way we view an event, action or state with respect to its development. By the term 'lexico-grammatical,' I mean that an aspectual distinction may be represented lexically, or grammatically, or both. For example, the Russian perfective and imperfective markers are considered grammatical, while English inceptive markers such as "begin" in "begin to do" or "start doing" are considered lexical markers of the aspect. They are closely tied to the inherent meaning of "begin" and "start." On the other hand, the progressive marker in English, "be + V-ing," or in Japanese, V-te iru, may be considered both lexical and grammatical in the sense that it is tied to the meaning of "be" in English or to the meaning of the existential verb iru in Japanese. Both "be" and iru are stative, and as such they are irrelevant to the meaning of 'completion.' In general, the inherent semantic characteristic of a verb is also aspectual since it is relevant of the development of a situation, although this characteristic should not be considered absolute with respect to aspectual categories. Of course, aspectual categories are not necessarily a matter of verbs only, but of verb phrases or of sentences. The aspectual categories of a predicate may be determined even by the nature of the subject or the direct object; that is, their number characteristic or whether they are mass nouns or not might even make a difference. For example, the Japanese verb sinu, "to die," is perceived as a punctual verb, and as such it cannot occur with a progressive meaning, although it may occur with a resultative meaning. Yet, if the subject is plural, the verb may indicate a successively progressive meaning or a resultative meaning. Observe also the following example:

Introduction: Basic Concepts

27

(24) Hito-bito ga kekkon-site iru. people SM get married a. "People are married." (Resultative)

E b. "People are getting married (one after another)." (successively progressive)

S,R

E S,R

In (24) both the successive and resultative meanings can be considered presently relevant, and are associated with durativity that will continue. Notice that the aspect of the verb kekkon-suru itself should be associated with punctuality, and hence, with perfectivity; but on the level of the verb phrase, it is used to express either a resultative or a progressive meaning. The progressive meaning here is possible only because of the plural nature of the subject. To cite another example, the verb kesu, "to turn off (a light or a fire)" is a punctual verb, and as such it is unanalyzable and must be associated with perfectivity. However, a verb phrase such as dentoo o tugi-tugi to kesite iru, "(Someone) is turning off the lights one after another," is interpreted to indicate progressively successive actions because of the plural interpretation of the direct object. Clearly, aspectual categories depend upon the nature of other lexical items in the sentence, and are 'interdependent.' As has been noted, one aspectual category also entails another. Let us examine these points further: (25) a. The man shot the bear. b. He will arrive at six. c. He will leave tomorrow. (26) a. b. c. d. e. /. g.

He knew it. He was working. He used to work there. He could hit the target off and on. It is going to rain. The river is drying up. The river is dried up.

The examples in (25) are all considered to be relevant to a point in time, while those in (26), to a portion of time. For the former, an adverb of time

28

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

duration or of process such as "for a long time," "for some time," or "gradually" is completely irrelevant, whereas with the latter, such an adverb normally co-occurs. The former group of verbs are punctual, and hence, perfective, while the latter, durative and imperfective. To analyze the examples further, sentence (26a) refers to a permanent state in the past. Since one's knowledge is expected to last, the inherent meaning of the verb is durative and imperfective. Sentence (266) describes a temporary but continuing situation, while (26c) refers to a habitual action which continued for some time in the past, and which may, for all we know, still be continuing. Sentence (26d) indicates a repetitive aspect. Sentence (26e) refers to a situation in which a process is unfolding towards the beginning of the event, while (26/) expresses a situation in which the end of the process referred to by the verb is approaching. It should be observed that the final verbs "rain" and "dry" are both punctual since they indicate specific points of inception and termination, respectively. However, the entire verb phrases in which they occur must be viewed as 'durative' and 'imperfective.' Graphically, they may be represented as incePtion and termination ? respectively. Sentence (26g) refers to a state that exists as a result of the completion of the event described by the verb. As in (26e) and (256), the final verb in (26/) must be 'punctual' but the entire verb phrase, "is drying up," is 'durative' since what is described is the present state of affairs. Example (26g) is graphically the same as (24a). The above observations make it clear that 'durativity' has its own subcategories. Different subcategories may emphasize different portions of an action or process indicated by the verb, as in (26e), (26/), and (26g). Some may even emphasize a stage neutral to its inception or termination as in (26a), in which the aspect of 'durativity' must be considered inherent to the lexical item "know." 'Durativity' is also relevant to different ways in which an event can occur, such as iterative vs. single occurrence. An iterative occurrence may be a series of 'punctual' events, which make the entire process 'durative' as in (26rminnti\>0 Pnvt-Torminntivo

Notice that (27) is actually composed of three different kinds of diagrams: the bottom solid line is a time line; its divisions A, B, C, D and E indicate the developmental stages of an event, and the arrows and circles represent the durative or punctual nature of those stages. Stages AtoE are relevant to the notion of 'Aktionsart,' and the circles and arrows, to the perfective and imperfective aspects, respectively, in the sense of (22). Stage A is relevant to what might be called the 'futurate progressive' as in "He is dying;" B, inception as in "He began to work;" C, to progressive or adjectival structures such as "He is studying" or "It is red;" Z), to completion as in "He finished his work" or "He reached the shore;" E, to result as in "He is dead." For a punctual verb, C does not exist, and B is simultaneous with D. On the other hand, the entire B, C and D may be within one circle. It has been mentioned previously that a term such as 'past progressive' or 'present perfect' has both tensal and aspectual concepts. In fact, whenever we utter a Japanese or English sentence, we interpret the stated event in terms of aspect as well as tense.46 Even if there is no overt aspectual marker, we will have to consider that aspect is semantically underlying. Therefore, in a 'simple past' or 'simple non-past' sentence, we may consider that the aspect marker is formally 0, in much the same manner as the English noun singular marker or the English non-past tense marker. On the other hand, we do know that the aspectual markers, such as "be + V-ing" in English or V-te iru in Japanese, are clearly indicated on the surface and have their own tense differentiations. To cite a few examples, aspect and tense of the following so-called 'simple sentences' may be graphically represented as follows: (In the diagrams, a solid aspectual arrow line expresses a continuing situation, and a dotted arrow line, a supposed continuation of the situation or the psychological relevancy of a completed or expected event. A series of apostrophe signs on the top of a solid line indicate iteration. I will not specify each developmental stage, such as A, B, C, D, or E, in the sense indicated for (27)).

30

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

(28) a. I had seen him.

i. Asp. Tns.

E

R

S

R

S

ii. Asp. Tns.

E b. I saw him.

i. Asp. Tns.

E

R ii. Asp. Tns.

S

E

R S (as in "I saw him for two hours.") c. I have seen him.

i. Asp. Tns.

E

.

S,R ii. Asp. Tns.

E d. I see him.

e. I will see him.

i. Asp. Tns.

S,R

£ S,R (as in "I see him regularly.")

i. Asp. Tns.

e

S

R

ii. Asp.

Tns.

e 5 /? (as in "I will see him for two hours.")

31

Introduction: Basic Concepts

iii. Asp. Tns. _^ ^L S,R (as in "I am to see him at ten.") iv. Asp. Tns.

£

£fl (as in "I am to see him for two hours.")

/. I will have seen him.

i. Asp. Tns.

E

S

R

ii. Asp. Tns.

S g. I had been seeing him.

Asp. Tns.

E

R

E

R S (as in "I had been seeing him since two weeks before.") h. I have been seeing him.

Asp. Tns.

E

S,R (as in "I have been seeing him since last month.") i. I will have been seeing him.

Asp. Tns.

E

S R (as in "I will have been seeing him for two weeks by then.")

32

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

j. I was seeing him.

k. I am seeing him.

Asp. Tns

ff R

S

Asp. Tns. S,R

1. I will be seeing him.

Asp. Tns.

E S

R

In the same manner as above, the sample diagrams of tensal and aspectual characteristics for certain Japanese sentences may tentatively be represented as follows:47 (29) a. Kare wa kekkon-site iru. he TM marry is i. "He is married."

Asp. Tns.

E

S,R

ii. "He has been married (for two years so far, for example.)"

Asp. Tns.

iii. "He has been married (before, but is not married now.)"

Asp. Tns.

e s,R ^ 5R

b. Kare wa benkyoo-site iru. he TM study i. "He is studying."

ii. "He has studied (for the past two hours, for example.)"

Asp. Tns Asp. Tns.

? S,R E

$,R

33

Introduction: Basic Concepts

iii. "He has studied (before but is not studying now.)"

Asp. Tns. S,R

c. Kare wa kekkon-site ita. he marry i. "He was married (then.)"

Asp. Tns.

ii. "He had been married (for two years up to then, for example.)"

Asp. jns

iii. "He had been married (before, but was not married then.)"

Aspa. Tns.

R

S

R

s

R

s

Diagrams for Japanese sentences with the 'tense' of 'simple past' or 'simple non-past' seem to resemble those of the corresponding English sentences. Diagrams of other Japanese aspectual categories such as pre-inceptive, inceptive, completive, sustentive, conclusive, and ingressive have not been given. Progressive and resultative categories should further be divided into subcategories such as repetitive and successive, not just the simple and perfect progressives and resultatives given above. They will be discussed in Chapter Four. Although the aspects of perfectivity and imperfectivity are different from those categories mentioned above, they may be considered 'super-categories' since categories such as inceptive, progressive, and so on, must be associated with either the perfective or the imperfective 'super-category.' 'Durativity' and 'punctuality' may be considered another pair of 'super-categories.' Pre-inceptives, progressives, resultatives and others may belong to either a durative or a punctual category. In addition, the inherent meaning of some lexical items may be durative or punctual. Durativity may tend to be associated with imperf ectivity, and punctuality, with perfectivity. 'Completive' and 'incompletive' are another pair of 'super-categories.' Pre-inceptives, progressives, and possibly others must belong to the incompletive aspect, while resultatives and perfects have the completive aspect underlying. To these must be added another pair in Japanese: 'realized' and 'unrealized' aspects. To the former, categories such as completive, progressive, resultative, perfect, or any other categories relevant to the post-inceptive stages of

34

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

development must belong. This category may point to the similarity between the progressives and resultatives. Notice that in Japanese they are both expressed by the -te iru structure. This also points to the similarity between the resultative and the completive aspect. Notice that the resultative may be considered to depend upon the underlying completive aspect for the verb. The category 'unrealized' includes all the aspectual categories relevant to the pre-inceptive stage of the situation. In addition, negative sentences are considered to be relevant to this category. If we take the mid-point between inception and termination as the pivot, the categories 'realized' and 'unrealized' are in a kind of mirror image relationship with 'completive' and 'incompletive' aspects, as shown in the following diagram:

(30)

incompletive unrealized

completive realized

I = inception T = termination These categories of aspects will be discussed and relationships will further be investigated in Chapter IV. In this section, the following points have been discussed: i. In the description of Japanese grammar, the concept of aspect has been rather confusing: tense and aspect are often not differentiated and the notions of aspect are varied. ii. For Slavic languages, aspect has typically been seen as the differentiation between the perfective and the imperfective. The perfective regards a situation in its totality, while the imperfective does not. iii. In other languages, aspect has been considered to cover various categories of the developmental stages such as inceptive, progressive, completive, resultative, etc. iv. In this study, aspect is considered to indicate a lexico-grammatical category of a verb or verb phrase concerned with the way in which we view a situation with respect to its development. v. Aspect is not only the matter of a verb, but also of a verb phrase and of a sentence. It may also be inherent in a verb, and may not be expressed grammatically.

Introduction: Basic Concepts

35

vi. In a language with tense, an event is understood both tensally and aspectually. Thus, a sentence must be represented by a diagram composed of an aspectual axis and a tensal axis. vii. Aspectual categories are systematic. Subcategories indicating developmental stages may be included at different levels. Perfective and imperfective, completive and incompletive, durative and punctual, and realized and unrealized are considered to be of higher categories.

2

Tense Forms and Their Reference

2.0

INTRODUCTION

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the -ta form or so-called 'past tense form' normally refers to events in the past, and the -ru form or so-called 'non-past tense form,' to those in the present or the future. Aspectually, -ta most normally indicates the completive aspect, and -ru, the incompletive aspect. In some cases, however, their reference does not conform to the normal pattern, when these forms may be more significant from the aspectual viewpoint, regardless of the time relations. Thus, -ta may be used to indicate the completive aspect although the event referred to may happen in the future, and -ru may be used to indicate the incompletive aspect of a past event. From the tensal point of view, it may sometimes be possible to explain such uses of -ta and -ru in terms of the psychological shift of speech time. This chapter will attempt to describe in more detail the range of the possibility of their uses and to arrive at some generalizations. The two-way contrast of past and non-past in Japanese necessarily neutralizes the contrast between the present and the future, which exists in some languages. Therefore, it may often lead to ambiguities1 with respect to whether or not a -ru form refers to the present or the future. For example, without a proper context, a sentence such as Tegami ga kuru, Lit: "Letter comes," may be interpreted at least in two ways: "Letters regularly come," or "A letter is (or letters are) coming (in the future)." Such an ambiguity, however, can easily be clarified by a specific time adverb or the context. On the other hand, depending upon, the kind of verb, the correspondence between the tense and the actual event time may sometimes be clear even without a proper time adverb. This is because there is a tendency for the -ru

Tense Forms and Their Reference

37

form of an action verb to indicate future events, and that of a stative verb to indicate state at the present time.2 Observe the following examples: (1) a. Tanaka-san ga iku. Mr. Tanaka SM go "Mr. Tanaka will go./Mr. Tanaka (regularly) goes." b. Tanaka-san ga ima iku. now "Mr. Tanaka will go immediately." c. Watakusi ga sum. I SM do "I will do (it)./I (regularly) do (it)." d. Watakusi ga ima sum. "I will do (it) immediately." (2) a. Koko ni hon ga am. here at book SM exist "There is a book here." n

b. • Koko ni asita hon ga am. tomorrow Intended meaning: "There will be a book here tomorrow." c. Kono bara ga kirei da. this rose SM pretty is "This rose is pretty." d. *Kono bara ga asita kirei da. Intended meaning: "This rose will be pretty tomorrow." e. Okane ga iru. money SM is necessary "Money is necessary ./(I) need money./(I) will need money." /. Asita okane ga iru. tomorrow "Tomorrow, money will be necessary./(I) will need money tomorrow." Notice that (la) and (Ic), each with an action verb in the -ru form, are interpreted in terms of the future, although they can also be interpreted in terms of the present; in the latter case, as the translations show, they refer to present habitual events, which fall within the notion of aspect. When an

38

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

action verb represents a single action, it refers to the future, as seen in (Ib) and (Id) in which even the time adverb ima, "now," does not make them 'present': they are understood as referring to the immediate future. Notice that (la) with an existential verb3 and (Ic) with a nominal adjective are interpreted in terms of the present, not the future (aspectually, they represent durative states). Therefore, the co-occurrence of the future time adverb as in (Ib) or (Id) makes them either strange or ungrammatical. However, although (2e) is interpreted normally in terms of the present, the co-occurrence of the future time adverb is still possible, as in (If). Therefore sentence (le) is potentially just as ambiguous as (la). Nonambiguity depends upon environment, since iru seems to be different from other stative verbs in that it might be possible to interpret it non-statively in some cases. Apart from the above referential ambiguity between the present and the future, the non-past tense form V-ru may actually refer to past actions, events or states depending upon the type of construction. This may or may not be the so-called 'historical present,' which also exists in English. Thus, in effect, -ru may refer to the past, the present and the future. To complicate the situation further, the past tense form V-ta may actually be used in reference to the past, the present, and the future, too. Therefore, the Japanese tense reference involving -ru and -ta may seem to be superficially quite irregular. There have been many studies on this very complicated but fascinating subject of Japanese tense reference. Some are minutely descriptive, and others more explanatory. Most of them are extremely informative although they may not always be convincing. Accounts by Kunihiro, Teramura and Miura are summarized in the following paragraphs,4 and will be used frequently in the subsequent discussion. They are representative because Kunihiro's treatment is extensively descriptive, and Teramura's, succinct and to the point, while Miura is more explanatory. Kunihiro lists a dozen uses of V-ru. He mentions that it expresses present facts or states, present psychological states, the utterance present (similar to English expressions such as "I regret that. . . " or "I agree to. . . "), actions occurring before one's eyes, events or states believed surely to occur in the future, the speaker's present intentions, reminiscences, habits, directions (as in recipes), and regular occurrences of events that follow certain special conditions. It also expresses general truths, and indirect commands. His categories are extensive, but unavoidably sometimes overlap one another. He also lists nine uses of V-ta. It describes an action or state in the past, habits in the past, events under specific circumstances in the past, a state in the past which still exists, discovery of a certain state, recall of a scheduled future event, a hearer's confirmation of some fact, an advance recognition or expected realization of an action or state, and an indirect command.

Tense Forms and Their Reference

39

These semantic characterizations of V-ru and V-ta are also closely tied to the meanings of the verbs themselves. Teramura deals with cases in which -ru and -ta occur at the end of a sentence separately from those in which they occur in embedded sentences. He also treats cases in which modality intersects with tense. He states correctly that the non-past tense form V-ru at the end of a sentence may indicate the quality or essence of some objects, transcending time. (This category is equivalent to Kunihiro's 'general truths.') Also, V-ru may indicate a present state, habit, repetition, or a prophetic statement about the future or the volition of the speaker for some future action. The V-ta form may indicate a past state, action or event or a completed action or event. On the other hand, both V-ru and V-ta in an embedded sentence may indicate uncompleted and completed actions or events, respectively; however, concerning certain classes of verbs, the V-ta form in an embedded sentence may replace the form V-te iru, which is normally used to indicate the progressive or the resultative aspect. He says that this replacement is irrelevant to the meaning of actual past, non-past or completion. Teramura also states that the stative verbs (zyootai doosi, "state verb") are irrelevant to the notion of kanryoo, "completion." Therefore, when the main verb is in the V-ru form and the embedded stative verb is in the V-ta form, for example, the embedded verb must indicate the past situation, not the completive aspect. Also, when both the main verb and the embedded verb are in the -ru form, the embedded verb refers to the non-past situation, not to the incompletive aspect. If the main verb is in the -ta form, the embedded stative verb refers to the past time, regardless of whether it is in the -ru or -ta form. Teramura also states that V-ta intersects with mood and indicates the realization of some expected action or event, an impending request, recollection, assumption, or the speaker's present feelings or emotion concerning some past event. Miura attempts to explain the tense phenomena on the basis of two fundamental notions of 'earlier T-R' and 'non-earlier T-R' (T-R here stands for Time-Relationship' in Allen's sense.)5 Miura's categories generally agree with those of Kunihiro and Teramura, but in essence, his treatment may be regarded as a 'relative' tense system. He states that V-ru expresses the situation of 'non-earlier T-R,' which signals "a particular event as not completed earlier than another event or earlier than the moment of speech," and that V-ta expresses the 'earlier T-R' which indicates "a particular event as completed earlier than some other event or earlier than the moment of speech."6 Notice that his tense categories are closely linked to the completive aspect. In a sense, this is certainly valid in view of the history of the Japanese language. In classical Japanese, the form -tari and nu as well as tu were used to express the meaning of completive aspect. Past tense was expressed by different forms such ki or keri. However, by around the middle of the

40

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

sixteenth century, -tari had changed to -ta and has survived to this day, taking on the function of the past tense marker as well as the completive aspect marker. Therefore, tense may often seem to be a subcategory of aspect. Although there are certain problems associated with Miura's treatment, since his notions explain a wide variety of cases, the examination and evaluation of them will be postponed until later. The three representative treatments of -ru and -ta as summarized above point to varieties of semantic categories. They are in fact so varied that it is somewhat difficult to relate them to one another, and some even seem quite unrelated. What is needed here is a mechanism by which the uses of -ru and -ta can be successfully explained. Diagrams of the kind given in Chapter 1 may be useful for this purpose. In what follows, actual uses of -ta and -ru will be categorically examined with diagrams, and their aspectual and tensal implications analyzed. 2.1

NON-PAST TENSE FORM

The so-called non-past tense form V-ru is used in reference to various meanings. 2.1.1 The present or future situation or timeless fact The uses of V-ru in reference to this category are quite normal, and various kinds of sentence are included in it. Depending upon the kinds of verbs, the fact referred to may be concerned with the state of mind, object, or abstract matter. The action or event may be non-habitual, habitual, repetitive, punctual, or immediate. Therefore, the following subcategories can be identified: (A): Reference to present, concrete, and objective or subjective event or state. Observe the following examples: (3) a. Koko ni isu ga aru. here at chair SM exist "There is a chair here." b. Watakusi wa gakusei da. I student is "I am a student."

c. lya da! hateful is "(I) don't like (it)."

41

Tense Forms and Their Reference

d. Odoroku nee! be surprised SP"f "(I) am surprised." e. Watakusi wa kare no si o hukaku kanasimu. I TM he of death OM deeply bemoan "I deeply bemoan his death." /. Watakusi wa kare no iken o sinziru. I TM he of opinion OM believe "I believe his opinion." g. Goran! Asoko o Tanaka-san ga kuru. look there AM $ Mr. Tanaka SM come "Look! Mr. Tanaka is coming along there." t (SP = sentence particle; in this case, for exclamatory meaning. $ (AM = adverbial marker) The meanings of all these examples are relevant to the diagram

E_

S,R in which E is 'imperfective,' 'incompletive,' and 'durative.' Sentences (3a) and (36) refer to present objective states, but (3c), (3d), (3e) and (3/) refer to the present subjunctive state of mind. Sentence (3g) refers to a present objective event. Notice that (3g) is translated into an English progressive sentence, which suggests that the action or event is presently in progress and is incompletive.7 The category discussed here corresponds to Kunihiro's 'present facts or states' and 'present psychological states,' mentioned in the previous section. (B): Reference to future actions, events or states which are to be realized. Scheduled events or actions are normally expressed by the -ru form, but some verbs can never be used for this purpose: (4) a. Raigetu wa natu da. next month TM summer is

E_

S R "It will be summer next month.'VLit. "Next month is summer." b. Watakusi ga anata ni eki de au. I SM you with station at meet

E

S "I will meet you at the station."

R

42

tense and aspect in modern japanese c. * Watakusi wa asita kare no si o kanasimu. I TM tomorrow he of death OM bemoan Lit. "I will bemoan his death tomorrow." d. * Watakusi wa kare no iken o asita sinziru. I TM he of opinion OM tomorrow believe. Lit. "I will believe his idea tomorrow."

In the above examples, (4a) expresses a 'future state,' while (4b), a 'future scheduled event or action,' both of which are to be realized for certain. Aspectually, (4a) is 'imperfective,' 'durative' and 'incompletive' but (4b) may be interpreted as 'perfective' and 'punctual,' although the aspect of completion may be irrelevant. Examples (4c) and (4d) show that the state which cannot be scheduled results in an ungrammatical sentence: e. • Kono byooki de sono sakana wa asita sinu. this disease with that fish TM tomorrow die "With this disease, the fish will die tomorrow." Lit. "With this disease, that fish dies tomorrow." Like (4c) and (4d), an event which cannot be scheduled or is uncertain to occur results in an awkward sentence. However, if sentence (4e) is interpreted to be a prophetic statement, perhaps it may be acceptable. Moreover, if the presumptive modal marker -daroo, "probably," is attached to the verb, the sentence will become perfectly grammatical. The category here partially corresponds to Kunihiro's 'events believed surely to happen in the future.' It is considered that the semantic feature [a predictable] plays an important role here. (C): Reference to timeless truth or facts. Observe the following: (5) a. Iti tasu iti wa ni da. one plus one TM two is "One plus one is two." b. * Iti tasu iti wa ni datta. was Lit. "One plus one was two." c. Tokyo wa Osaka yori kita da. than north is "Tokyo is further north than Osaka."

£

S,R

E S,R

Tense Forms and Their Reference

43

d. ? Tokyo wa Osaka yori kita datta. was "Tokyo was further north than Osaka." 17

e. Paris wa France ni am. in exist "Paris is in France."

S,R

f. ? Paris wa France ni atta. existed "Paris was in France." g. Hi wa higasi kara noboru. sun TM east from rise "The sun rises in the east."

£

S,R

Sentences (5a), (5c), (5e) and (5g) are meant to be examples for timeless truth or fact. Aspectually, they are all imperfective and are irrelevant to the notion of completion. If they are expressed by the past tense form -to, as in examples (5&), (5d) and (5/), they may result in either ungrammatical or abnormal sentences. Especially, (5b) seems to be pragmatically impossible, while (5d) and (5/) may be acceptable only if they are uttered by someone who had not known those facts and who is recalling his experience of 'discovering' them. If (5g) is expressed by -to, it will be acceptable as a statement applicable only to a specific occasion. This category corresponds to Kunihiro's 'general truth' and partially to Teramura's 'quality or essence transcending the matter of time.' (D): Reference to present habitual or repetitive actions or events. The following sentences illustrate this category: (6) a. Watakusi wa rokuzi

ni okiru.

I TM six o'clock at rise "I get up at six o'clock." b. Watakusi wa titi ni dake eigo I TM father to only English o hanasu. OM speak "I speak English only to my father." c. Basu wa roku-zi ni deru. bus TM six o'clock at leave "The bus leaves at six o'clock.

£

r n £

S>R

£

S,R

44

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

The example sentences above are for present 'iterative' events and are all imperfective. However, the subcategory here may overlap with other subcategories. For example, if a proper adverb such as asita, "tomorrow," is underlying, (6a) can be a statement with a meaning much like those in (4). Then the meaning will be, "I will get up at six (tomorrow)." It is also possible to think of (6b) above in terms of a specific future event or of 'timeless' fact. Likewise, (6c) can be interpreted as a statement in terms of a future scheduled event. It is necessary to admit such ambiguities since the subcategories under (2.1.1) are interwoven, so to speak; repeated events may also be facts from another point of view. What is important, however, is that they all have the -ru form and refer to the present or the future. 2.1.2 Indirect command or direction Although the problem of modality is involved, the -ru form may be used to signify indirect command. In Japanese the normal imperative sentence has the imperative morpheme -ro which indicates 'direct command.' Imperative sentences without -ro are here considered to indicate 'indirect command,' as in these examples: (7) a. Tatu! stand "Stand up!R b. Naku n zyanai! cry matter is Neg. "Don't cry!"

(Semantically, this is interpreted as the same as "Stop crying." Then, the diagram must be the same as (la).)

c. Satoo o zyuu-guramu ireru. sugar OM ten grams put in "Put ten grams of sugar in.R d. Go-hun-kan niru. five minutes boilJ "Boil for five minutes." Examples (la) and (Ib) show indirect command, and (Ic) and (Id) are examples of directions on a recipe which must also be considered within this category. Stage directions are another instance which come within the category of indirect command. Aspectually, they are 'unrealized' and incompletive.8 Depending upon the kind of verb, some indirect commands may aspectually be perfective, and others may be imperfective.

Tense Forms and Their Reference

45

The direct commands which correspond to (Id) and (7b) would be Tatel and Nakuna!, respectively. An indirect command is generally less abrupt than a direct command, although it is less polite than a polite command such as Tatinasai, in which -nasai is the polite imperative marker. It may be the case that the direct command morpheme -ro is underlying -nasai. Directions such as (7c) and (Id) are not only found printed as a recipe but also are given orally in a polite style as in Go-hun-kan nimasu (-masu here is a politeness marker in the non-past tense form), which may be used in a cookery class. Thus direct commands for such situations are simply avoided. In everyday speech, whether a person chooses to use an indirect or a direct command is entirely a pragmatic matter. Then how is the connotation of indirect command possible in a sentence which is very much the same as a simple declarative sentence? In order to answer this question, we must look at its underlying structure. If we assume syntactically that a modality marker occurs at the end of a sentence and a tense marker precedes it in Japanese,9 and that the structure of an indirect command sentence is generated by modality marker X that has the features of [ + command, —abrupt,. . . ], the underlying structure of (la) above may be represented approximately as follows: (8)

The exact feature composition of modality marker Xis not clear, but it must be basically the same kind of morpheme as the direct command morpheme -ro with the exception of the feature [-abrupt] and perhaps a few others. Transformationally, the modality marker gets deleted together with the subject anata of Si, leaving only the verb tat + ru, which becomes tatu on the surface. On the surface, it may appear that -ru is functioning as a modality marker, but the true indirect command modality marker must be considered underlying as shown in (8). The category discussed here corresponds to Kunihiro's two categories of indirect commands and directions.

46

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

2.1.3 Past events and actions (A): Narrative and reminiscing. The use of the non-past form V-ru in reference to the past is frequent both in conversation and in writing. It is often used in a reminiscent or narrative style. By using -ru in reference to the past, the speaker or writer aims to bring the past effectively to the present moment so that the hearer or reader can re-experience that past event. One may also say that the speaker or writer transports the hearer or reader to the past, so that they can view the event from the specific past reference point of time. In either case, there is a definite shift of temporal viewpoint. We may say that the deictic point has shifted from the normal 'present moment' to some point in the past as represented by (20) in Chapter 1, which is reproduced here for convenience as (9).

The English 'historical present' and 'conversational historical present' are very similar to the cases under consideration. Stylistically, the effectiveness of English and Japanese in using the non-past tense forms seems to be about the same, although perhaps Japanese uses the non-past tense form more freely than English for narrative and reminiscing, as in the following: (10) Soo omotte, kare wa moo iti-do yomikaesita. (past tense) Ga, so thinking he TM more once re-read but tyoosi no kurutte iru (non-past) koto wa mae to tone SM off-base is matter TM before as ikkoo kawari wa nai. (non-past)10 simply change TM non-exist "So thinking, he re-read (the manuscript). However, it was offbase and there was simply no change from before." Notice that in translating, it is normal to change Japanese non-past tense forms to English past tense forms. The translation results in some decrease of dramatic effect, but idiomatic English normally requires so-called tense agreement. Although like Japanese English certainly uses the 'historical present,' we can say that the degree of temporal shift is one of the important differences between Japanese and English. The colloquial Japanese sentences below show the use of the non-past

hh forms and their referenceT ense

47

tense form V-ru which is very similar to the English 'conversational historical present' in Wolf son's sense: (11) Boku ga sonna koto o sita' (past) no ka to kare I SM such thing OM did fact Q quotative he ni tumeyotta2 (past) tokoro ga kare wa iya to pressed on the occasion that he TM no sinaP (non-past) to yuu4 (non-past). Boku wa kare don't do quotative say I TM he no yuu5 (non-past) koto o doo rikai-sita6-ra (past) SM say thing OM how if understood ii1 (non-past) ka wakaranai8 (non-past) si mendoo ni good Q don't understand moreover troublesome natta9 (past) kara tootoo akiramete simatta.10 (past) became because finally giving up ended up (past = past tense form V-ta; non-past = non-past tense form V-ru) "When I pressed him saying, 'Did you do such a thing?' he said, 'No, I didn't do (it).' I didn't know how to interpret what he said; moreover, it became troublesome, so I finally gave up (further interrogation)." Notice again in the above example that the tense form shifts back and forth in Japanese, but in the English translation the tense agreement is consistently maintained. Needless to say, even if the -ru forms were replaced by the -ta forms, they would still be grammatical and would refer to the same events or states. In 1 the event in question is viewed from the point of view of the speech time in the quotation, and in 2 it is viewed from that of the present speech time. In 3 the event is viewed from the point of the event time itself, to which the speech time 5" has psychologically shifted. In 4 , 5 , 7 ,and 8 the situations are very much the same as 3. In 6 -ta occurs in a conditional construction. It is closely tied to the aspectual notion of 'realized' or 'completed,' but the problem involved in it seems somewhat different from an ordinary -ta. In 9 the basic reference time is the same point in the past at which 10 occurred, seen from the present moment of speech. With the exception of 6 , these situations may be represented as follows:

48

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

E\

El, R?>, S'

S S

R\ EI R2

£4, RA, S' £5, R$, S'

Ej, Rj, S'

ES, RS> S'

Eg, #9 - 5

£10. RW-S (S = speech time; 5' = shifted or imaginary speech time; EX ~ event time for sentence x in (11); R x = reference time for Ex.}

Notice that whenever 5', R and E coincide, the verb form is V-ru, the non-past tense form, but whenever S' does not occur, the verb form is V-ta, the past tense form. On the basis of the phenomena above, the uses of the past and the non-past tense forms in Japanese appear to be explained by Miura's notion of 'earlier T — R' vs. 'non-earlier T — R.' In reference to actions finished in the immediate past (actually or psychologically), -ru may sometimes be used regardless of whether or not the actions or events are habitual; for example: £ (13) a. Nani o yuu ka! —;— what OM say Q R,S' "What are you talking about?"/Lit. "What do you say?"

S

r

b. Sonna koto o sum to wa kesikaran! —^such thing OMdo unpardonable R,S' S "It is unpardonable to do such a thing!" (Uttered in response to a report that someone did some bad thing.) The use of -ru in reference to the immediate past is a little different from that for reminiscence which is usually concerned with the remote past. However, so far as its role of bringing the past into the present moment (or the present to the immediate past) is concerned, it can be considered in much the same way. In both cases, it seems most proper to take into consideration the shift of viewpoint that causes the illusion of incompletive aspect.11 (B): Grammatical requirement. Certain grammatical constructions require the non-past tense form. In some subordinate constructions, only the non-

Tense Forms and Their Reference

49

past tense form -ru occurs, regardless of whether the action or event described by the verb is in the past or the future. Semantically, such constructions often involve the matter of aspect. Observe these sentences: (14) a. Kono kabin ga otiru gurai ie ga yureta. this vase SM fall extent house SM shook i. "The house shook to the extent that this vase fell down." ii. "The house shook to the extent that this vase almost fell down." b. Yasumi ninaru tabi niie ni kaetta. vacation become every time home to returned "(I) returned home for every vacation." (Lit. "Every time (it) becomes vacation, (I) returned home.") c. Yasumi ni naru ya ina ya ie ni kaetta. as soon as "As soon as (it) became vacation, (I) returned home." The examples above must be examined both tensally and aspectually. Tensally, they may be examined with respect to the 'anteriority' and 'posteriority' of the events referred to by the verbs. Aspectually, the notions of 'completion' and 'incompletion' must be considered. The diagrams for the above sentences may tentatively be represented as follows:

(14') a. -i.

£l

R

C

S

E2

R a. -ii.

MC S

, (236'), (23c') or (23d'), and in that semantically they refer to states, while sports broadcasts refer to actions and events. It is considered that aspect is involved here, in that the verb form implies the completion of the event referred to by the verb. Yet its contingent result is referred to at speech time. Aspectually, therefore, we may say that -ta in those sentences indicates the 'realized' aspect. One may ask, then, what the difference is between a sentence such as (23a) and the resultative form Wakatte iru, "(I) know," for example, both of which are relevant to the 'realized' aspect. The difference is that (23a) indicates that the event of "having come to understand something" is in the immediate past, as implied by the use of the interjection; but wakatte iru is neutral with respect to the temporal remoteness or proximity of the event, although it tends not to be immediate past. After all, the examples (23a), (236), (23c) and (23d) have some of the association with 'hot news' that might normally be expressed by the so-called present perfect tense in English. Formally, the negative counterpart of (23a) should be Aa, wakaranakatta. "Oh, I didn't understand!" However, semantically, this is the negation of a past tense form such as Kinoo wakatta, "(I) came to know about (it) yesterday," in which the reference is clearly to the past. The negative counterpart of (23a) is a form such as (230'). Therefore, wakatta by itself is actually ambiguous. It refers to the present state on the one hand, and to the

60

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

past event on the other. Thus, the tensal and aspectual situations for wakatta may have to be represented as follows:

(24)

E

a.

R

S

E b

R

S,R'

(as in Kinoo wakatta "(I) came to know about it yesterday.") (as in (23d))

Diagram (24a) may be associated with the normal use of the -ta form in reference to a past event, but in (24Z?) it is considered that R produces the -ta form in much the same way as (24a), but it shifts to the speech time 5 for reference to the present state resultant from the completion of the event indicated by the verb. A somewhat similar case in English may be mentioned here. In some cases, "got" may refer to the present state meaning much the same thing as "have." For example, "I got some" may be equivalent to "I have some" in a situation such as: Speaker A: "I don't have any money." Speaker B: "Oh, I got some." However, the English example is not exactly the same as the Japanese, in that the Japanese examples in (23) involve the element of immediate past. Closely associated with the phenomena described in the examples in (23) are a group of verbs for which the -ta form modifying a head noun may be virtually interchangeable with the -te iru form. Such a replacement is possible because -ta is used in reference to a present state and is aspectually as much 'realized' as -te iru. As such, those verbs in the -ta form are some kind of 'stative' verbs, since they refer to states or qualities. Normally, they behave like defective verbs in the sense that they cannot be used as the main verb of a sentence in their final (or indicative) form. Their -ru form is seldom used, and their -ta form must modify a head noun, or they must be followed by the formative -te iru. Observe these sentences: (25) a. Kono ko wa haha ni nita ko da. this child TM mother to resembled child is "This is a child that resembles (my) mother." (Lit. "This child is a child that resembled (my) mother.") a'. Kono ko wa haha ni nite iru ko da. "This is a child that resembles (my) mother."

Tense Forms and Their Reference

61

b. Sonna zubanuketa gakusei ga iru no desu. such outstanding student SM exist fact is "(We) have such an outstanding student." (Lit. "The fact is that such a student who excelled exists.") b'. Sonna zubanukete iru gakusei ga iru no desu. "There is such an outstanding student." The embedded verbs in (25a) and (25b) are the -ta forms of the verbs niru, "resemble," and zubanukeru, "excel," respectively. However, these -ru forms are almost theoretical, since they are hardly ever used. Nite iru and zubanukete iru in (25a') and (25b'}, respectively, may be associated with resultative forms. That is, for nite iru in (25a'), it might be possible to consider that at some unspecifiable point in the past, the "process of becoming like someone else" was completed and the result exists at the present time. If this consideration is valid, the basic form of the verb niru may have to be viewed as non-stative with a meaning such as "to become like . . . " Then, nita in (25a) must be interpreted as "became like." Once the resemblance has taken place, the result must be irreversible; therefore, the resultative meaning must always be there. This situation is different from a verb such as kuru, "come." Its past tense form, kita in kita hito, "the person who came," does not necessarily entail kite iru hito, "the person who (came and) is here." Thus there is necessarily a semantic similarity between (25a) and (25a'), and since the 'resultative' situation expressed by the -ta form with these verbs is irreversible, we may have to separate them from other verbs such as kuru for which the resultative situation is reversible. We may assign the feature [+permanent] to those verbs to indicate the permanent or semi-permanent nature of their resultative situations. There are some problems in interpreting verbs such as niru, and zubanukeru as non-stative and viewing the meanings of (25a1) and (25b') as genuinely resultative. As mentioned before, those verbs never occur at the end of a sentence without -te iru; their -ru forms are seldom used; their 'completive' aspect, which is basic to any resultative meaning, is only psychologically possible; and their past tense forms cannot co-occur with a past time adverb. Semantically, their past tense form indicates a state, never an event in the past. Therefore, those verbs may sometimes appear more like stative than non-stative verbs, as far as their actual uses are concerned. Perhaps, their -te iru forms may have to be called 'pseudo-resultative,' since the 'completion' of events indicated by the verbs is only imaginary. In some cases, their -te iru forms are so normal that it may even be more convenient to interpret them as lexical units with features such as [ + stative, + permanent, . . . ]. On the other hand, nita may be treated as a lexical unit with features such as

62

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

[ + stative, + permanent, — sentence final, . . . ]. In this work, however, a non-stative verb such as niru will be treated as a form theoretically related to nite iru and nita, which are stative. Among other verbs which behave like nita and zubanuketa are sikkarisita, "firm/dependable," omodatta, "prominent," and sobieta, "towering," which are logically related to their respective non-past -ru forms; also compare sikkari-sita hito vs. sikkari-site iru hito, "a dependable person," omodatta hito vs. omodatte iru hito, "a prominent person," and takaku sobieta yama vs. takaku sobiete iruyama, "high towering mountains." As in the case of niru, the -ru forms of these verbs are seldom used.13 There are cases in which the semantic difference between the -ta form and the -te iru form of a punctual verb is clear in some sentences but not so clear in others; this is illustrated as follows: (26) a. Sore ga wakatta hito wa sukunai. that SM understood person TM few "Few came to understand that./Few understood that." b. Sore ga wakatte iru hito wa sukunai. "Few have come to know that./Few know that." c. Tanaka-san wa mono ga yoku wakatta hito da. Mr. Tanaka TM things SM well understood person is "Mr. Tanaka is a sensible man./Mr. Tanaka is a well-informed man." (Lit. "As for Mr. Tanaka, (he) is a person to whom things made good sense.") d. Tanaka-san wa mono ga yoku wakatte iru hito da. "Mr. Tanaka is a sensible man." (Lit. "As for Mr. Tanaka, (he) is a man to whom things have made good sense.") Notice that in (26a) and (266) the replacement of the underlined forms produces different meanings. This is partly due to the fact that wakaru may be a non-stative verb in some cases. At least in (26a), its -ta form is understood as non-stative, although in (26b) the verb phrase wakatte iru must be understood as stative. In (26c), however, wakatta refers to the present state of the person mentioned, and it is understood as statively as wakatte iru of (26d). Since those two cases of wakaru have different feature compositions, it is possible to consider that there are two different wakaru verbs: one is non-stative with the meaning "come to understand," and the other has the meaning "is understandable/is clear."14 Together with the feature of stativity, the notion of punctuality of verb seems to play a role here, too. That is, the verb wakaru is a punctual verb. In general, non-stative punctual verbs seem to behave like wakaru. Their -ta

Tense Forms and Their Reference

63

form modifying a noun may be interpreted either non-statively or statively depending upon the case. For example, take the verb sinu, "to die." In a pair such as Sono tokisinda h/to wa sukunakatta, "Few died then," and Sono toki sinde iru hito wa sukunakatta, "Few were dead then," the replacement of -ta with -te iru is impossible. However, in a pair such as Sinda huri o sum, "(I) will pretend to have died/(I) will pretend to have been dead," and Sinde iru huri o sum, "(I) will pretend to have been dead," the verb form replacement seems entirely possible. From these examples we must understand that the -ta form of a punctual verb in some cases may be closely tied to the notion of stativity and is used almost interchangeably with the -te iru form. There are examples in which the -ta forms that refer to the present state or quality are so regular that they are felt to be set phrases or completely unanalyzable items. For them, the replacement of the -ta form with the -te iru form is impossible. Observe these two examples: (27) a. Kore wa anata no sitta koto de wa nai. this TM you SM knew matter is not "This is none of your business." (Lit. "This is not the matter that you came to know about.") b. Ano hito wa miageta zinbutu da. that person TM looked up character is "That person has an admirable character." (Lit. "That person is a character that (we) looked up to.") In (21a) and (27b) above, the -ta forms sitta and miageta, which are understood statively, are related to the non-past tense forms siru, "to come to know (punctual)" and miageru, "to look up (durative)," respectively. However, clearly those -ta forms in (27a) and (27b) are not used as the past tense forms of corresponding non-past tense forms. Moreover if we were to replace the -ta forms of those verbs with their -te iru forms, we would get entirely different meanings: c. Kore wa anata no sitte iru koto de wa nai. "This is not something that you know about." d. -Ano hito wa miagete iru hito da. Lit. "That is a person who is looking up." Apparently, the -ta forms in (27) are unanalyzable, and it is necessary to treat them separately from the normal -ta forms. They may be considered independent lexical items, although they are no doubt related to their theoretical -ru forms.

64

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

Other verbs that behave like sitta and miageta are, for example, omoikitta, "to be drastic," kosita, "to be superior," and akireta, "to be disgusting," which are certainly related to omoihiru, "to make up one's mind," kosu, "to exceed," and akireru, "to get disgusted," respectively. These verbs are clearly non-stative in their -ru forms, but their -ta forms suggest that they have changed to stative verbs. (B): Recall of fact or truth. The past tense form V-ta may be used to express a certain fact or truth which the speaker is supposed to have known or which he has just re-registered in his mind. It is used when the speaker simply wants to confirm his memory. In particular a recalled future schedule may regularly be expressed by -ta. All these meanings refer to a situation relevant to the present or future. Normally, datta, the past tense form of the copula da, and atta, the past tense form of the existential verb am, "to exist," occur in this construction, but non-stative verbs are seldom so used. It must be emphasized that the -ta form here is clearly a superficial use since the actual reference is to the present or future. Observe the following: (28) a. Anata no okuni wa Hirosima datta nee. you of home town TM Hiroshima was Tag "(I recall that) your home town is Hiroshima, isn't it?" (Lit. "Your home town was Hiroshima, wasn't it?") b. Onamae wa nan desitaka. name TM what was Q "What was your name?" (i.e. "What is your name?") c. Asita wa nani moyoteiga nakatta. tomorrow TM anything plan SM didn't exist "Nothing has been scheduled for tomorrow, (I recall)." (Lit. "As for tomorrow, there was no plan.") In the above, (28a) implies that the speaker wants to confirm his memory, while (28b) implies that the speaker was supposed to know or to have known the hearer's name. He may be making a gesture of courtesy, so to speak, that he wants to re-register the name in his mind. Example (28c) shows the recall of a future schedule. An important point is that the -ta forms above are irrelevant to the notion of completive aspect, and are replaceable with the -ru forms without changing their grammatically, although such a replacement will eliminate the meaning of 'recall.'15 The time relationships of (28a), for example, may be graphically represented as (R, E — S, R', E'). Notice that the reference R'is to the present as shown by (S, R', E'), but the meaning is that the situation relevant to the present must have been established in the past, as shown by (R, E — S),

Tense Forms and Their Reference

65

although the speaker might not remember it. Potentially, therefore, a sentence such as (28a) must be structurally complex although on the surface it appears simple. In all of the examples above, some kind of underlying modality marker must be assumed. The modality marker that has direct relevance to the meaning of recall gets deleted in the process of transformation, leaving only the past tense form V-ta. A similar situation seems to exist in English. The English translation of (28&), for example, directly reflects the Japanese sentence. Some other kind of modality marker might also be deleted, leaving only the past tense form. For example, in (29) some kind of imperative/conditional modality marker is implicitly present: (29)

Did you want to go? (i.e. Do you want to go?/Please go.)

Although the past tense form is irrelevant to the meaning of 'recall' here, it refers to a non-past situation with some modality marker underlying. 2.2.3 Future time The use of the -ta form in reference to the future must also be viewed in relation to several subcategories. (A): Future completed state. The -ta form may be used to express the future completed state which will definitely occur in the immediate future. If translated into English, such a sentence is normally expressed by a progressive form. This points to the fact that the action or event indicated by the -ta form in such a construction is actually imperfective, incomplete or is in process. Yet the reason for the past tense form -ta is that it expresses that the indicated process as of the speech time has been partially completed and the final completion is simply implied as imminent. Notice the following exclamations: (30) a. Aa, dekita, dekita. oh got done got done "Oh, (it's) coming, (it's) coming." (Lit. "(It's) got done, (it's) got done." May be used when one is making something and its completion is near.) b. Yoku natta, yoku natta. well became "(It's) getting better, (it's) getting better." (Lit. "(It) got well, (it) got well." May be used by a doctor, for example, to a patient who is getting better.)

66

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

c. Kita! Kita! came "(He) is coming, (he) is coming!/There he comes!" (Lit. "(He) came, (he) came.") Kunihiro's 'advance recognition,' and Teramura's 'realization of expected action or event' correspond to the category here. It seems difficult to explain the use of -ta here on the basis of Miura's notion of 'earlier T-R as defined by him. However, it is possible to explain it on the basis of shift of viewpoint. For example, a diagram such as (31) may be proposed to explain the relationship between what is said and what is implied.

E

E'

(31) R,S

R',S'

In (31), E, R and S stand for the actual event, reference and speech times, respectively, and E', R'and S', for psychological points of time for inferred event, reference and speech. In terms of E, R and S the situation E described by the verb has proceeded up to R, S and the actual envisioned completion E' is certainly to come by the very near future time point R'. Since E precedes R, 'earlier T-R' applies, although actual completion is simply implied. Closely associated with this category is an example such as (32). (32) Konosiai wa moratta! this game TM got "(We) will win this game." (Lit. "As for this game, (we) got (it).") Example (32) implies that the speaker is absolutely sure that the event expressed by the verb will be brought to reality. It may be uttered when the game is half-way through and the victory is imminent, or even before the game starts. In either case, it is considered that as far as the speaker is concerned, the victory is a foregone conclusion. With such a use of the -ta form, the speaker in effect brings the future event to the past or himself to the future with the expected event as an already accomplished fact. In a sense, the category discussed here is the reverse of the category of 'historical present' in which the present is pushed back to the past. (B): Indirect command. As in the case of the non-past tense form V-ru, an indirect command may be expressed by the -ta form. It implies that the hearer should already be at the stage where the action has been completed.

Tense Forms and Their Reference

67

The indirect command with the -ta form is felt to be much more abrupt than that with the -ru form; in fact, to be as abrupt as a direct command: (33) a. Saa, katta, katta! well bought "Come on, make a purchase, make a purchase!" b. Yameta, yameta! quit (past) "Quit (it), quit (it)!" There is no negative form of the indirect command using the past tense form, although we have the negative indirect command of the non-past tense form as in Naku n zya nail or Nakanai! "Don't cry." The reason for this seems to be that the verb in the indirect command of the -ta form must be 'completive' in its underlying structure. However, a negative Japanese verb becomes adjectival and so imperfective, thus becoming irrelevant to the notion of completion. The structure of the -ta indirect command is evidently more complicated than that of the -ru indirect command. This is because the former implies that the hearer is directed to be in a state in which the action expressed by the verb is already completed. Semantically, it is very similar to an English imperative sentence such as "Be gone!" Example (33a), therefore, may be paraphrased as Katta zyootai ni are!16 Lit. "Be in the state of having bought (it)." The outline structure of (33a), therefore, may be represented as (34) below:17 (34)

68

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

In the process of transformation, only the verb in 5*2 is considered to survive; a high stressed pitch is attached to the final syllable, which is essential for interpreting the utterance as a command, and not a statement about some past event. In effect, therefore, one may say that all the deleted elements are transformed to a high stressed pitch. Semantically, an imperative modality marker must always be attached to a verb in the incompletive or the non-past tense form. This is only natural, since one orders someone to do something in the future, no matter how immediate it may be. One cannot order something which has already occurred. Therefore, the surface of -ta of (33a) is not really 'the past tense marker.' The event time in (33a) is 'past' only from the psychological or imaginary reference time point. Thus, if we consider the structure of (33a) as something similar to the one represented in (34), the -ta form may be represented in a diagram such as this:

(35)

e

S

R

R'

Here, R is the immediate future time point at which "buying" should take place, and R' is a psychological future reference time when the hearer is supposed to be in the state of having completed E. If we consider R' as in (35), the -ta form in (330) may be considered to conform to Miura's notion of 'earlier T-R."1 Thus, although the -ta form for indirect command is certainly aspectual, it can be explained in terms of relative tense notion if a shift such as R—> R' is introduced. (C): Semantic and grammatical requirements. In some adverbial constructions, the past tense form V-ta is obligatory; in such a construction, which has a meaning in reference to a time point after the completion of some event, that event must be expressed by the -ta form. That is, if words such as ato, "after," totan, "as soon as," kiri, "since," etc., are to be used as time adverbs, they must be modified by V-ta. Since the meaning of such a construction is "after finishing E\,Ei follows," the -ta form must express the completive aspect regardless of whether E\ actually occurred in the past or not. EI may be either in the past or non-past tense form. The following sentences illustrate this construction: (36) a. Biiru o nonda ato ni sake o nomu. beer OM drank after at sake OM drink "(I) will drink sake after (I) drink beer."

Tense Forms and Their Reference

69

b. Biiru no nonda ato ni sake o nonda. drank "(I) drank sake after (I) drank beer." c. To o aketa totan ni anata ga nigeru. li desu ka. door OM opened as soon as you SM run away OK is Q "As soon as (I) open the door, you run away. OK?" (Lit. "As soon as (I) opened the door, you run away. OK?") d. Iti-do tegami o yokosita kiri, otosata ga nai. once letter OM sent since news SM non-existent "Since (I) heard from (him) once, (I) haven't heard (from him)." (Lit. "(He) sent a letter once only, (and) there is no news.") A tensal explanation for all of the above examples is possible on the basis of the notion of 'earlier T-R,' since E\ occurs before EIIn a conditional construction, the suppositional action, event or state expressed by the verb may be in the -ta form. Associated with this construction are wishes, which may be expressed by the same form. The conditional clause occurs as an embedded sentence, and the past tense form of the verb or adjective is followed by the conditional morpheme -ra. The main sentence verb may be either in the -ta or -ru form. (37) a. Asita ame ga hutta-ra, ikimasen. tomorrow rain SM if fell won't go "If it rains tomorrow, (I) won't go." (Lit. "If rain fell tomorrow, (I) won't go.") b. Tanaka-san ga kita-ra, kore o agemasu. Mr. Tanaka SM if came this OM give "If Mr. Tanaka came, (I) would give this to him." c. Motto yasukatta-ra, kaimasu. more if was cheap buy "If (it) was cheaper, (I) would buy (it)." d. Kita-ra ii. if came good "If (you) came, (it) would be good./(I) wish (you) would come." There is some difficulty in explaining the above examples of -ta forms in terms of the aspectual notion of 'completion.' In (370), for example, £2 (i.e. "not going") occurs even before E\ (i.e. "raining") is completed. That is, EI must be interpreted as taking place when£i is still in process. In (31 c), since E\ (i.e. "to be cheap") is stative, it must be irrelevant to the notion of 'completion.' Therefore, the -ta forms in (37) must be explained in terms of some other notion, perhaps in terms of the aspect, 'realized.' Thus the

70

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

sentences in (37) will have the meaning that £2 takes place conditionally to the realization, not necessarily the completion, of E\. From a tensal point of view, Miura's notion of 'earlier T-R might seem useful here, since E\ must precede EI- However, even this notion must depend upon that of 'realization,' not upon 'completion,' and 'earlier T-R must be interpreted as 'E\ must be realized prior to EI- If it cannot include 'realized,' -ta must be considered only grammatical here. (D): Enumerative actions and states. Enumerative actions may be expressed by -ta as follows: (38) a. Ame ga huttari,18 kaze ga huitari, totemo hidokatta. rain SM fell wind SM blew very bad was "It rained and was windy, and it was very bad./With rain and wind, it was very bad." b. Utattari odottari, minna oosawagi datta. sang danced everyone racket was "(We) sang and danced, and made quite a racket." The kind of structure given in (38) is sometimes called 'representative' form, which correctly suggests that there are other events or actions involved. The indicated actions may occur one after another, or all simultaneously. As mentioned in the previous section, enumerative events can also be expressed by -ru in the yara . . . yara construction. One explanation of the difference between enumerative actions represented by -ta and those represented by -ru might possibly be that in the former, the actions and events are perceived as 'completed,' but in the latter they are not. There is some difficulty associated with such an explanation, as the former construction may involve stative verbs or adjectives for which the notion of 'completion' must be irrelevant; for example: (39) a. Rainen wa okane ga attari, nakattari surudaroo. next year money SM existed not existed do perhaps "Next year, sometimes (we) will have money, and sometimes, (we) won't, perhaps." b. Kotosi no natu wa atukattari, samukattari surudaroo. this year summer TM was hot was not hot do perhaps "The summer this year will perhaps be hot sometimes, and cold sometimes." It will be also difficult to explain the use of -ta here in terms of 'earlier T-R,' since the tensal situation above is 5" — R, E, and the latter is the pattern for 'non-earlier T-R which theoretically should occur with -ru. It may be that the examples in (38) and (39) are aspectually 'realized,' not 'completed.'

Tense Forms and Their Reference

71

If considered tensally, however, a psychological shift of speech time must take place so that the relevant situations are seen as if they were past or anterior situations. Summarizing section (2.2), the past tense form V-ta is typically used to refer to past situations. However, it may also be used to refer to non-past situations, particularly in reference to a present situation which has been 'realized' either by the completion or by the initiation of the stated event or process. Even a future event or state psychologically perceived either as completed or realized may be expressed by -ta. Some uses of -ta in subordinate clauses are either grammatically or semantically dictated. 2.3

REPLACEABLE CASES

This section will discuss sentences in which -ta and -ru can be used with almost identical meaning.19 Such cases occur in certain embedded constructions, especially in those in which nouns are modified by embedded clauses. They are somewhat different from those exemplified by (25), which dealt with the replacement of -ta by -te iru. Compare (40a), (40&), and (40c), with (40cO and (40e). (40) a. Kyonen

Yokohama ni Viru\ toki Tanaka-san ni atta. \_ita] last year in FisH when Mr. Tanaka with met [wasj "When (I) ("(lit.) amlin Yokohama last year, I met Mr. Tanaka." |_ wasj b. Sakana ga F yasui ~] toki wa takusan sakana o tabeta. L yasukatta J fish SM Pis cheap I w h e n T M a l o t fish OM ate Lwas cheapj "When fish I" (lit.) wasis 1 cheap, (I) ate a lot of fish."

L

was

J

c. Gakusei [no 1 toki, okane ga nakatta. \_datta\ student f is ~| when money SM wasn't there [_was J "When (I) [(lit.) am] a student, (I) didn't have money." |_ wasj d. Yokohama ni Viku 1 toki Tanaka-san ni atta. \_itta \ tofgo Iwhen Mr. Tanaka with met LwentJ

72

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

"When (I) Rlit.) go 1 to Yokohama, (I) met Mr. Tanaka." went e. Kinoo sakana o \kau ~| toki, depaato e itta. _katta yesterday fish OMfbuy Iwhen department store to went bought] "When (I) pit.) buy Ifish, (I) went to the department store." bought] In the above, the noun toki is modified by embedded sentences with either -ta or -ru form. In (40a), (40&), and (40c) the replacement of the tense form does not seem to change what is actually referred to. With either form, the event expressed by the main sentence is simultaneous with that expressed by the embedded clause, or at least it takes place while that indicated by the embedded sentence is on-going. Therefore, regardless of the form, the time relationships between E,R, and S in (40a), for example, may be represented as EI

E2R~s in which E\ stands for the situation in the embedded clause, and £2, for the main clause. The time relationships for (40&) and (40c) are considered to be the same as that for (40a). In (40d) and (4Qe), however, the tense form replacement does change the meaning. Depending upon the form, the time relationships become different. In (40J), for example, the time relationships may be represented as follows: (41) a. If -ru is used for the embedded clause: R\-E\-S (EC) EiR2 ~S (MC) b. If -ta is used for the embedded clause: i. E\,R\-S (EC) E2,R2~S (MC) ii. E{ -Ri -S (EC) EzR2 -S (MC) As presented in the above diagrams, when the -ru form is used in (40cT) and (400), the event in the main sentence £2 is thought to take place prior to

Tense Forms and Their Reference

73

that in the embedded clause E\. That is, the event in the embedded clause is interpreted as not realized at the time of R\. Thus, if -ru is used in (40e), for example, it may be paraphrased by sentence (40/) below: /. Depaato ni itte sakana o katta. department store to going fish OM bought "(I) went to the department store and bought fish." Example (40 the subjects are human and the sentences perfectly grammatical. However, in (22&), (22c) and (22d) the subjects are non-human and their resultative counterparts are all ungrammatical in Japanese. It seems impossible to find an example in which a non-human subject appears in the NP-o V-te am construction unless some kind of metaphor is involved. This seems to apply also to Np-ga V-te aru construction. This is closely related to the fact that the -te am construction expresses the meaning of the intentional creation of a state which exists at some reference point of time. Such a resultative state is retained intentionally for some unspecified purpose; therefore, since an intentional action must have a human subject, the te aru construction tends to be bound by the implied human subject, as follows: (23) a. Oyu ga wakasite aru. hot water heat exist "The hot water has been made (and it is here available), (i.e. Someone made the hot water and kept it hot.") a'. Oyu o wakasita aru. "(Someone) has made the hot water (and it is available now)." b. Aisukuriimu ga katte aru. ice cream SM buy "The ice cream has been bought (and it is here), (i.e. Someone bought the ice cream and has kept it)."

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

137

b'. Aisukuriimu o katte aru. "(Someone) has bought the ice cream (and it is here)." Both (23a) and (22>a'), for example, express the meaning that someone, most likely the speaker himself, heated the water and it has been kept warm. Example (23a'), however, may be a little stronger in asserting that someone caused the existing situation. Such -te aru expressions are not used if the speaker already knows that the hot water, for example, was made by the natural heat of the sun or in some other way without any human involvement. For existing hot water that became warm without human involvement, the most likely sentence to be used is: (24) Oyu ga waite iru. become hot "The hot water has been made." (Lit. "The hot water became hot and it is in that state.") Notice that the verb in (24) is the intransitive waku, "to get hot," and does not imply anything about the agent nor the voluntary retention of the resultant state. This sentence refers to the fact that water became hot somehow or other and is in that state at the speech time. It views the situation as if the retention of the heated water is natural and outside any human activity. Since it is considered that the meaning of the -te aru construction involves human volition for the creation of a resultant state, and most likely for the retention of that state as well, only the semantic contents that have to do with human volition are relevant to the construction. The resultant state in question may be with respect to a positional, quantitative or qualitative change, or a new existence of something brought about which had not existed before. Transitive emotive verbs such as kanasimu, "to bemoan," yorokobu, "to be delighted with," and nageku, "to lament," and transitive sense verbs such as kanziru, "to feel," or omou, "to think," which are [ —self-controllable], do not occur in the -te aru constructions. Similarly, some transitive psychological verbs such as kitai-suru, "to expect," yoki-suru, "to expect," and nozomu, "to hope," do not appear in te aru constructions, either. When the resultant state is something intangible, a -te aru construction appears to express merely the meaning of completed action, and the retention of the resultant state seems irrelevant: (25) a. Sore wa kare ni sirasete aru. that TM he to inform "(I) have informed him of that."

138

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

b. Sore wa gakusei ni osiete am. students to teach "(I) have taught that to the students." The actions expressed by the verbs in the above examples are supposed to have been completed, and the sentences are viewed from the point of view of the present time; therefore, they are much like (22a') in that the action expressed by the verb has been completed. However, in (22a') there is definitely a meaning of the tangible existence of deposited money, whereas in (25a) and (256) the results of the completed actions may or may not be present at this moment. Thus, one may be inclined to believe that -te am constructions refer to completed actions in some cases, which makes them very much the same as mere past tense constructions. However, even with the above examples in (25), there is some implication that the resultant situations exist or are supposed to exist relevant to speech time. Thus, the implied resultant state for (25a) may be the speaker's belief that "he" does now have the information, and in (25b) that the students ought to know or remember what was taught. In this sense, they are different from the mere past tense sentences which can be considered to express the completion of actions or events referred to by the verbs. There are cases in which a verb occurring in a -te aru construction seems to express the meaning of an uncompleted or even on-going action:14 (26) a. Mizu ga /o dasite aru. water SM OM put out a. "Water is out. (i.e. Someone got the water out of the faucet and the water is there now.)" b. "Water is coming out. (i.e. Someone did something so that the water runs out from the faucet, for example, and he left the resultant state as it is.)" Example (26) has a resultative structure which, however, is in fact ambiguous as the translations indicate. The first reading (26a) can be considered an example of a normal resultative sentence; it entails a situation in which a container, such as a bucket, is full of water ready to be used. On the other hand, the second reading refers to a situation in which the process of water coming out of the faucet is still going on, not to a situation in which the bucket is full. Most likely, the container is very big and the agent might have left the water running out of the faucet for the time being. In effect, then, this second interpretation points to the same situation as (27).

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

139

(27) a. Mizu ga ima dete iru. water SM now come out is "Water is coming out now." Notice that the verb in (27) is intransitive, and the event is on-going. However, both readings of (26) are considered to be resultative; the first is clear enough, but the second reading must be interpreted that what the verb refers to is the inception point of the action dasu, "to put out." Therefore, the second reading is based upon the interpretation that the action of opening the faucet was completed and the resultant state of "running water" exists at speech time. We can account for this difference of interpretation if we consider that in some cases certain verbs may refer only to the inception point of the action, process, or event, while in others they refer to the totality of an action, process, or event as an unanalyzable whole. In both cases, they should be considered 'perfective.' Some more examples similar to (26) are: (28) a. Gomi o moyasite am. garbage OM burn i. "The garbage has been burned, (i.e. Burning is over, and only ashes remain.)" ii. "The garbage is being burned, (i.e. The action of starting the fire is over, and the garbage is burning now.)" b. Mizu ga nagasite am. water SM let flow i. "The water has been made to flow. (i.e. The water may no longer be running although it did flow before.)" ii. "The water is running (having been made to flow.)" c. Kodomo o nekasite am. child OM put to sleep i. "The child has been made to sleep, (i.e. The child is no longer sleeping, although he has slept.)" ii. "The child is sleeping (having been put to sleep)." d. Kodomo o benkyoo-sasite aru. make study i. "(I) have made the child study, (i.e The child studied since (I) made him study.)"

140

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

ii. "The child is studying (having been made to study by me.)" It is not exactly clear what feature is responsible for the possibility of two interpretations for the examples in (26) and (28). Surely, it is not simply a matter of transitivity, since not all transitive verbs behave in the same way. It does seem, however, that the transitive verbs which can be associated, at least semantically, with causativity have such a characteristic. Such verbs invariably have either intransitive or non-causative transitive counterparts. Thus, dasu in (26) corresponds to deru (intr.) "to get out;" moyasu in (28a), to moeru (intr.) "to burn;" nagasu in (2Sb) to nagareru (intr.) "to flow;" nekasu in (28c), to neru (intr.) "to sleep;" and benkyoo-sasu in (28of), to benkyoo-suru (tr.) "to study." As long as it is a resultative sentence, the general outline structure of (28a), for example, must be in conformity with that in (17). However, there must be differences between the underlying structure for the first interpretation and that for the second. For the first interpretation, the transitive verb moyasu as a whole is considered to underlie it, its past tense form indicating a completive aspect; while for the second interpretation, the intransitive counterpart moeru with the feature [—completive] is embedded in a causative structure that has the feature [+completive]. In effect, then, the verb moyasu for the first interpretation is assumed to be an independent lexical item, and to be composed of moeru plus a causative morpheme for the second interpretation. Thus (28a-ii) is equivalent to "(Someone) has caused the garbage to burn." The outline structures of (28a) may look like (29): (29) a. For (28-a-i):

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

141

b. For (28a-ii):a

The structures for the rest of the examples in (28) may be considered in the same way as (29). Summarizing the main points of this section, the following may be recapitulated: i. A resultative sentence refers to a state resulting from the completion of an event indicated by the verb. The resultative aspect is expressed by a non-stative verb with the completive aspect embedded most typically in the frame of -te iru. ii. Although the embedded verb is non-stative and completive, the resultative aspect is stative, incompletive, and durative. iii. Pseudo-resultative forms are derived from verbs that are only theoretically non-stative. As such, they are different from normal resultative forms in that they are irrelevant to the specific time points of events indicated by the embedded verbs. Their te iru form modifying a noun may often be replaced by the -ta form. They are generally concerned with permanent or semi-permanent states, and are irrelevant to successive or repetitive meanings.

142

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

iv. Volitional transitive verbs with agents as their subjects in the underlying structures occur most normally in the -te am construction. v. Like the -te iru resultative, the -te am resultative refers to an existing state. The action indicated by the verb is considered to have been completed. vi. Typically, an existing resultant state has been intentionally created by performing the action referred to by the verb; the resultant state has also intentionally been retained. vii. Associated with (vi) above, it is semantically necessary to consider that the action referred to by the verb is, in its past tense form, expressing the completive aspect. viii. Some -te aru forms may be ambiguous between the meanings of resultant existing state and of progressive action. The former interpretation is the result of viewing the verb as referring to the entire action but the latter, of viewing the verb as referring only to the initial inception point of the action. Such ambiguity occurs with respect to verbs that have a causative meaning. Both of those interpretations must, after all, be regarded as resultative. 4.4

EXPERIENTIAL ASPECT AND EXISTENTIAL ASPECT

The construction V-te iru may sometimes mean that the effect of the termination of the event or action indicated by the verb prevails up to the reference point of time; the verb may be either durative or punctual. This aspect can be called the 'experiential' aspect.15 A non-stative durative verb used to express the experiential aspect is interpreted as 'perfective,' or unanalyzable. In this sense, it becomes much like a punctual verb. Thus, while an example such asyonde iru, "is reading," can refer to an 'on-going' action, it can also refer to a situation which might be expressed by a phrase such as "has read so far." The former interpretation is progressive, and the latter, experiential. Since the experiential aspect is as much concerned with post-terminative situations as the resultative aspect is, the difference between them must be made clear. First, the experiential aspect has some sort of "historical" overtone, in the sense that it implies that what the verb refers to has truthfully occurred. The resultative aspect does not have this characteristic. Secondly, the experiential aspect focuses attention on a span of time, while the resultative aspect typically does so to a point in time. If the tense is non-past, the former is concerned with the state of affairs prevailing up to

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

143

the speech time, but the latter is concerned with the state of affairs at the speech time. With the former, typical co-occurring adverbs are kore made ni, "up to this time," sore made ni, "up to that time," or kyoo made ni, "up to today;" while with the latter, relevant adverbs are ima, "now," sono toki ni, "then," or kyoo, "today." Observe the following: (30) a. Kore made ni sono byooki de go-nin no hito up to this time that illness with five persons ga sinde int. SM die "Five persons have died of that illness up to this time." b. Sono byooki de go-nin no hito ga ima sinde iru. now "Five persons are now dead of that illness." Example (30a) expresses an experiential meaning and the co-occurring adverb points to a stretch of time, but example (30&) indicates a resultative meaning with the co-occurring adverb referring to a point in time. Without the co-occurring adverbs, therefore, the sentences are ambiguous between the resultative and experiential readings. It was mentioned above that if the verb is non-stative durative, V-te iru may also be ambiguous between the progressive and experiential readings. Therefore, depending upon the kind of sentence, V-te iru may be ambiguous in several ways. We will come back to this topic shortly. Sometimes, a time adverb referring to a time-point in the past occurs in an experiential construction. Such a sentence may superficially appear to indicate that the experiential form can be modified by an adverb referring to a point in time: (31) a. Kare wa kyonen Tokyo de hataraite iru. he TM last year in work "He has worked in Tokyo, (and it was) last year that he worked." b. Kore made ni, kare wa kyonen Tokyo de hataraite iru. so far "So far, he has worked in Tokyo, (and it was) last year that he worked." Notice that in example (31a) the adverb kyonen, "last year," occurs in a sentence that is interpreted as experiential. On the surface, it might seem

144

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

that kyonen, which is interpreted as a point in time in the context, modifies the experiential aspect formative -te iru. However, (31 b] shows that the adverb actually modifies the embedded verb hataraku, "to work," not the whole phrase hataraite iru. Thus structurally, kore made ni and kyonen occur on different levels, as follows: (32)

A sentence such as (3la) must be derived from a structure such as (32), and the deletion of the adverb of the main sentence may be due to the context. The surface form of an experiential sentence without a proper adverb may be ambiguous in several different ways if its verb is punctual and its subject plural: (33) a. Kodomo ga sinde iru. children SM die "The children are dead." "The children have died (so far)." "The children are dying (one after another)." b. Gakusei wa Tokyo kara kite iru. students TM from come "The students are here from Tokyo." "The students have come from Tokyo (so far)." "The students are coming from Tokyo (daily, etc.)" "The students are coming from Tokyo (one after another)"

(resultative) (experiential) (successively progressive)

(resultative) (experiential) (repetitively progressive) (successively progressive)

In both (33a) and (336), the semantic difference between the resultative and the experiential readings may not be immediately clear, although the difference can be seen more clearly in (336). In its resultative interpretation, the students must be "here" at the time of speech act, but in the experiential

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

145

reading, the students do not have to be "here" at that moment. They might have left again already, although the fact remains that they had come. This points to the basic semantic difference between the resultative and experiential interpretations: a resultative sentence is valid when the result of the completed action exists at the reference time, but an experiential sentence does not require such an existing result, as long as the fact that the event occurred in the past remains true. In short, the resultative aspect is concerned with the result, the experiential aspect, with the fact that the event occurred. The experiential forms are most normal with non-stative verbs. However, there are cases in which some definitely stative verbs, especially potential verbs which do not occur as progressives, may be interpreted experientially, but never resultatively. The following sentences illustrate this: (34) a. Zinrui wa 1945-nen ni genbaku o tukuru koto human TM year 1945 in A-bomb OM make matter ga dekite iru. SM able to "Human beings have been able to make atomic bombs (and it was) in 1945 (that they could do that), (i.e. The fact remains that human beings could make. . .)" b. Kare wa kore made ni san-ka-kokugo o hanasete iru. he TM so far three languages OM can speak "He has been able to speak three languages so far. (i.e. He has learned to speak three languages up to now, but at present he may or may not speak all of those three languages.)" Another example in which a stative verb underlies an experiential form can be seen in (35): (35) a. Kare wa san-nen-kan kekkon-site iru. he TM three years married a. "He has been married for three years, (i.e. He is still married.)" b. He has had an experience of being married for three years, (i.e. He was married for three years, but he is not married now.)" The interpretation of (35) in terms of (b) is experiential, but (a) is in a sense resultative. ((35a) will be discussed more extensively in Section 4.6 of this chapter.) Since the verb kekkon-suru, ."to get married," is punctual, the adverb san-nen-kan, "for three years," must co-occur with the phrase

146

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

kekkon-site ita, "was married," which is stative and must be embedded in the experiential construction. Thus, the outline structure of (356) may be considered as follows: (36)

The meaning of (356) is something like "It remains true that he was married for three years," which is represented by the structure (36). In (36) Si will generate the resultative form kekkon-site ita, "was married," which is embedded in the experiential structure frame. Note that -te ita of S^ is deleted in the process of transformation. It is not exactly clear why stative verbs or verb phrases such as dekiru, hanaseru, or kekkon-site iru can occur in an experiential structure as embedded verbs. It is suspected, however, that they are temporarily functioning as non-stative verbs with the feature of [+completive]. Since the experiential aspect is relevant to the stretch in time from the termination point of the action or event to the reference time, its 'extensive' relevance must cover any point in that stretch. The term 'extensive' for such a time-stretch may characterize the semantic nature of the experiential aspect; since it views a situation in terms of a span of time, it is necessarily also retrospective and historical. In contrast, the resultative aspect is nonextensive and 'simul-spective;' it is 'ahistorical,' so to speak. In light of all these characteristics, the following outline structure for the experiential aspect is proposed: (37)

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

147

Not only an experiential form, but also an existential form, may refer to the fact that the action or event expressed by the verb took place in the past and that this fact remains true. Thus semantically, the experiential aspect is very similar to the existential aspect. Therefore, their similarities and differences must be clarified. The existential aspect is expressed typically by the form V-ta koto ga am, which can be literally translated as "the fact exists that (someone) did (something)." Both the experiential and the existential forms can co-occur with adverbs that refer to a stretch of time such as kore made ni, "so far/up to this time," which makes their similarity even closer. Observe the following: (38) a. Kore made ni kono kawa de kodomo ga sinda koto so far this river in children die matter ga am. SM exist "Children have died in this river so far." (Lit. "There exists the fact so far that children died in this river.") b. Gakusei ga sono hon o yonda koto ga am. students SM that book OM read "The students have read that book." (Lit. "There exists the fact that the students read that book.") Notice that the meanings of the above examples are very similar to those of experiential sentences and must be translated into the English present perfect tense forms. However, there are subtle differences between existential and experiential forms. The existential meaning is often concerned with personal reminiscing,16 but the experiential meaning, with a factual impersonal connotation which must be relevant up to the present moment. Therefore, it results in a somewhat peculiar sentence if a time adverb of recent past 17 is used with the existential form, while such an adverb may normally be used for the experiential form; for example: (39) a. * Tanaka-san wa kinoo kono hon o yonda koto Mr. Tanaka TM yesterday this book OM read ga am. Lit. "There exists the fact that Mr. Tanaka read this book yesterday." (existential) b. Tanaka-san wa kinoo kono hon o yonde iru. "Mr. Tanaka has read this book, (and it was) yesterday (that he read it)." (experiential)

148

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

Example (39a) shows that the meaning of reminiscing is quite impossible with an event that occurred in the recent past, while (39b) shows that it is perfectly normal for an event occurring in the recent past to be expressed by an experiential form. The second difference between the two structures may be described by saying that the existential form is inclined to focus its attention on a single specific event; even if the events are more than one, they tend to be seen as one group. On the other hand, the experiential form does not show that tendency; events are seen as separate from one another. This difference is illustrated in (40): (40) a. Kono kawa de kodomo ga go-nin sinda koto ga aru. this river at children SM five died "In this river there has been an occasion in which five children died." b. Kono kawa de kodomo ga go-nin sinde iru. "Five children have died in this river (so far)." Notice that (40a) describes as a single event the occasion on which five children died, but in (40Z?) the five children may have died separately at five different times. As mentioned previously, McCawley (1971) counted four uses of the English present perfect: existential, universal, state, and hot news. Although we are concerned with Japanese sentences, his description of the English perfect is relevant to our examples. Thus the meaning in (38a) may be understood in terms of McCawley's 'existential' category, which "indicate[s] the existence of past events," and the meaning of (39£) in terms of 'universal,' which is used to "indicate that a state of affairs prevailed throughout some interval stretching from the past into the present." Although some additional subtle meanings such as reminiscing, remote past and speaker's detachment need to be added for the existential sentences, McCawley's existential vs. universal differentiation generally seems to be applicable to the Japanese existential vs. experiential forms.18 There are also co-occurrence differences. Existential sentences are possible with many of the stative verbs, whereas experiential sentences are most normal with non-stative verbs. It is even considered that some of the stative verbs that can occur in an experiential structure are temporarily functioning there as non-stative. In particular, the existential verbs aru and iru can normally occur embedded in an existential structure, but they cannot occur in an experiential one. For example:

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

149

(41) a. Okane ga atta koto ga am. money SM existed "There was a time when (I) had money./There were times when (I) had money." (Lit. "There exists the fact that I had money.") a'. * Okane ga atte iru. (The expected experiential form corresponding to (a) above.) b. Tanaka-san wa Tokyo ni ita koto ga am. Mr. Tanaka TM in was "There was a time when Mr. Tanaka was in Tokyo./There were times when Mr. Tanaka was in Tokyo." b'. * Tanaka-san wa Tokyo ni ite iru. (The expected experiential form corresponding to (b) above.) Associated with (41) above, a -te iru construction, regardless of whether it is progressive or resultative, can normally occur embedded in an existential structure; however, it cannot occur in an experiential structure, except in some limited cases such as the one exemplified by (35b} and (36). Observe the following also: (42) a. To ga aite ita koto ga aru. door SM open was "There was a time/were times when the door was open." a'. * To ga aite ite iru. (The expected experiential form corresponding to (a) above.) b. Tanaka-san ga asoko ni tatte ita koto ga am. Mr. Tanaka SM there at standing was "There was a time/were times when Mr. Tanaka was standing there." b'. * Tanaka-san ga asoko ni tatte ite iru. (The expected experiential form corresponding to (b) above.) In (42a')> if the embedded iru (as manifested as ite) is deleted, the sentence might become grammatical, as in the case of (35), for example.

150

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

The above examples present a form of existential sentence only with respect to V-ta koto ga am. In fact, a form which has the non-past tense form in the complement sentence is also considered existential; that is, V-ru koto ga am must be considered existential, since it refers to the existence of the event(s) taking place at present or in the future. Thus, an additional difference emerges between existential and experiential forms: the existential form can be used in reference to incompletive events, while the experiential form always refers to completive events. (43) a. Watakusi wa Tokyo e iku koto ga am. I TM to go "There are times when I go to Tokyo./Sometimes I go to Tokyo." b. Watakusi wa Tokyo e iku koto ga atta. "There were times when I would go to Tokyo." Notice that in (43a) nothing is implied as having been completed; therefore, in its underlying structure, the complement sentence contains no past tense form indicating the completive aspect of the embedded verb. In short, for the existential form, [+completive] is not required for the complement sentence. Sentence (43&) reflects this fact, too. On the other hand, as (37) showed, the experiential form does require the completive aspect of the embedded sentence. In this section, I have made the following points: i. V-te iru may express the experiential aspect indicating that the effect of the termination of an event or action expressed by the verb prevails up to reference time. ii. Although both resultative and experiential aspects are concerned with the post-terminative stage of an action or event, they are different in that the former is associated with a point in time, but the latter with a stretch in time. iii. The experiential aspect is relevant to historical, retrospective implications, but the resultative aspect, to 'ahistorical,' 'simul-spective' implications. iv. The experiential aspect normally takes a non-stative verb as its complement, and the complement sentence must be interpreted as

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

151

completive. However, it sometimes takes certain stative verbs or verb phrases that are temporarily functioning as non-stative. v. V-te iru may be ambiguous in several ways, depending upon the environment. vi. The form Vkoto ga am expresses the existential aspect indicating that the event or action referred to by the verb exists. Whether the event or the action is completed or not depends upon the verb form. vii. If the verb is in the past tense form, the meaning of the existential form becomes very similar to that of experiential form. However, they are different in that the former is normally used in reference to a remote past, that it is normally interpreted with respect to a single event or group of events, and that it can take both stative and non-stative verbs as its complements. The latter is not used in such ways. 4.5

PERFECT PROGRESSIVE ASPECT

The experiential and the progressive aspects that have been discussed share some of their semantic characteristics with what can be called the 'perfect progressive' aspect (hereafter, abbreviated to 'P-P' aspect). A 'P-P' sentence refers to the continuation of an on-going situation from the past to the present and at the present time. Like the progressive aspect, the 'P-P' aspect is relevant to non-stative verbs only, and in this sense, it is a subclass of the progressive aspect. Both the 'P-P' and experiential aspects are relevant to universal points in time in the past, but the former is semantically active, while the latter is static. That is, the action is still going on with the former, but it has ceased with the latter. Therefore, the complement verb for the former must be incompletive, but must be completive for the latter. Although a 'P-P' form and a simple progressive share some similar meanings, they are different in that the former focuses attention on a stretch of time, while the latter focuses attention on a point of time. The following sentences show typical examples of the 'P-P' aspect: (44) a. Watakusi wa kore made ni-syuukan mo tegami o I TM so far two weeks even letter OM matte iru. wait "I have been waiting for the letter as long as two weeks so far."

152

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

b. Watakusi wa zyuu-nen-kan kono mati ni sunde iru. I TM ten years this town in live "I have been living in this town for ten years." c. Kare wa moo go-zikan mo benkyoo-site iru. he TM already five hours even study "He has been studying as long as five hours already." In the above examples, the continuation of the situation described by the verb exists from the past to the present and into the future. If all the time adverbs in (44) are changed to ima, "now," the sentences will have a simple progressive aspect. A 'P-P' form is also different from a simple completive. Compare the examples in (44) with those in (45): (45) a. Watakusi wa kore made ni-syuukan mo tegami o matta. Lit. "Up to now, I waited for the letter as long as two weeks." b. Watakusi wa zyuu-nen-ken kono mati ni sunda. Lit. "I lived in this town for ten years." c. Kare wa moo go-zikan mo benkyoo-sita. Lit. "Already, he studied as long as five hours." In all these examples, there is a meaning of continued action for a specified period of time, in the same way as (44). However, the sentences in (45) are different from those in (44), in that there is no expressed meaning of present or future on-going event or action involved, although there is such a meaning in those in (44). Since the experiential aspect and the 'P-P' can share the same form, they are sometimes confusing. Observe the following: (46) a. Kare wa zyuu-nen-kan asoko de hataraite iru. he TM ten years there at work a. "(So far) he has been working there for ten years, (i.e. He is still working there.)" (P-P) b. "(So far) he has worked there, and it was for ten years (that he worked), (i.e. He is no longer working there.)" (experiential) The difference between the two possible interpretations must be considered to lie in the underlying forms. The following outline structures are proposed for (46a) and (466), respectively.

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

153

(47) a. For (46a):

b. For (46b):a

Notice that the time adverb zyuu-nen-kan, "for ten years" in (46a) is a clause-mate of -te iru, but the same adverb for (466) is a clause-mate of hataraku. Moreover, the embedded verb for (46a) is [ — completive], but that for (466), [+ completive]. Since the 'P-P' aspect is also relevant to the repetitively or successively progressive aspect, a punctual verb occurring in the -te iru construction may be that much more ambiguous. This is especially true if the adverbs are deleted because of the context. Thus, sentence (48) is ambiguous in at least four ways: (48) Hitobito ga sinde iru. people SM die a. "People are dead." b. "People have died (so far)." c. "People are dying (one after another)."

(resultative) (experiential) (successively progressive)

d. "People have been dying (one after another)." (P-P)

154

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

In (48) since the verb sinu, "to die," has the feature of [ — repeatable], the aspect of repetition is irrelevant. If a sentence has a verb with the feature of [+ repeatable], it will be still more ambiguous. For example: (49) Kare-ra wa kono eki kara dete iru. they TM this station from depart a. "They are gone from this station." (resultative) b. "They have departed from this station (so far), (i.e. They left from this station in the past, and that fact remains true to this day.)" (experiential) c. "They are leaving from this station (one (successively after another)." progressive) d. "They have been leaving from this station (successively (one after another so far)." P-P) e. "They are leaving from this station (every day)."(repetitive) /. "They have been leaving from this station (every day so far), (i.e. They left from this station every day for the past two years, for example, and they are still leaving from this station.)" (repetitively P-P) Sentence (50), which has a durative verb in its predicate, is ambiguous in at least seven different ways: (50) Gakusei-tati wa sono hon o yonde iru. students TM that book OM read a. "The students are reading that book (now)." (progressive) b. "The students have read that book (so far), (i.e. The students read that book in the past and that fact remains true to this day.)" (experiential) c. "The students have been reading that book (so far), (i.e. The students have read that book for some time so far, and they are still reading it.)" (P-P) d. "The students are reading the book (one (successively after another)." progressive) e. "The students have been reading the book (one after another), (i.e. They successively read the book for some time and they are still doing the same now.)" (successively P-P)

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

/. The students are reading the book (every day)."

155

(repetitively progressive)

g. "The students have been reading the book (so far from time to time), (i.e. They have read the book repeatedly in the past and are still doing so.)" (repetitively P-P) In summary, the 'P-P' aspect may be characterized as follows: i. The 'P-P' aspect refers to an existing situation that has continued for some some from the past to the present and will continue for some time into the future. In this sense, it is a kind of progressive aspect. ii. It involves a stretch in time from the past to the present, and in this sense, it is like the experiential aspect. iii. The 'P-P' aspect is relevant to non-stative durative verbs; however, if punctual verbs occur with a meaning of repetition or succession, they are also relevant to the 'P-P' aspect. iv. The complement verb of the 'P-P' must be [—completive], and the adverb specifying the stretch of time must be a clause-mate of -te iru.

4.6

PERFECT RESULTATIVE ASPECT

As mentioned previously, in the resultative aspect the speaker pays attention to the existing state of affairs resulting from the completion of the event or action described by the verb. Example sentence (35) was presented as ambiguous. Its interpretation (35a) indicates that the speaker pays attention to the state of affairs during a stretch of time from the past to the present moment, and to the present state of affairs at the time of the speech act. In this meaning, it is both perfect and resultative. In one sense, it is like the experiential in that it is concerned with a stretch of time and is relevant to the feature [ + extensive], but in another sense it is resultative, being concerned with a resultant state at the time of speech. This situation will be called 'perfect resultative' (hereafter to be abbreviated as 'P-R'). 'P-R' sentences, however, must be interpreted differently from both simple resultative and experiential sentences. Observe the following:

156

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

(51) Kare ga kite iru. he SM come a. "He is here (now)." (resultative) b. "He has been here. (i.e. He came in the past, and that fact remains true although he may not be here now.)" (experiential) c. "He has been here. (i.e. He came and has been here since.)"

(P-R)

Notice that for the interpretation of (51) in terms of (a), the speaker focuses his attention to a point in time, and an adverb such as ima, "now," co-occurs very appropriately. However, for (b), the result no longer exists, although the fact that "he" came remains true. On the other hand, (c) indicates that the result of "his" coming has existed and still does at this time. Therefore, anticipated or appropriate situation arrives, the state will no longer be kept, same way that 'P-P' is a kind of progressive aspect. As such, it is relevant to non-stative, non-durative verbs. Since 'P-R' pays attention to a stretch in time, the most appropriate adverbs that may co-occur with it are those which indicate some specific stretch of time, normally in the past, such as kore made, "until now," kako zyuu-nen-kan, "for the past ten years," go-ka-getu-kan, "for five months," and so on. Other examples with the 'P-R' aspect are: (52) a. Kare wa ni-syuukan mo okite iru. he TM two weeks even get up "He has been up for as long as two weeks (and he is still up)." b. Sono e wa go-nen-kan mo nakunatte iru. that picture five years even disappear "That picture has been missing for as long as five years (and it is still missing)." The outline structure of a sentence with the 'P-R' aspect is considered to be rather similar to that of the resultative aspect. However, an adverb indicating a stretch of time from the past to the present must occur as a clause-mate of -te iru. Thus the outline structure of (52a) may look like (53):

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

157

(53)

The transitive resultative form of the kind presented in (54) should also be considered in light of the 'P-R' aspect. (54) Kore made sono ginkoo ni okane o go-nen-kan azukete am. so far that bank in money OM five years deposit "So far, (I) have deposited money in that bank for five years (and the money is still there)." Notice that in (54) the time adverb expresses the meaning of an extended time stretch. Furthermore, the money was deposited five years before, was kept there for five years, and is still in the bank. Thus, the following structure may be considered for (54): (55)

The following sentence which involves a non-repeatable punctual verb is ambiguous in at least five ways:

158

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

(56) Taihuu de ki ga takusan taorete iru. typhoon with tree SM many fall a. "A lot of trees are down because of the typhoon." (resultative) b. "A lot of trees are falling (one after another) (successively because of the typhoon." progressive) c. "A lot of trees have fallen because of the typhoon, (i.e. Trees fell in the past, although they have been cleared away since.)" (experiential) d. "A lot of trees have been falling because of the typhoon, (i.e. Trees are still falling and the ty- (successively phoon may still be here.)" P-P) e. "A lot of trees have been down because of the typhoon, (i.e. The trees fell last month, for example, and they have been down since.)" (P-R) Notice that in (56) the verb is punctual, and it is irrelevant to the meaning of simple progressive aspect. On the other hand, if a verb with the feature [ +repeatable] is used, the form V-te iru may be that much more ambiguous. The following sentence is ambiguous in at least seven ways: (57)

Wakai hito-tati ga takusan toodai ni haitte iru. young people SM a lot Tokyo University enter a. "Many young people are in Tokyo University." (resultative) b. "Many young people are entering Tokyo University (one after another)." (successive) c. "Many young people are entering Tokyo University (many times), (i.e. They are entering Tokyo University repeatedly, changing the field of specialization, for example.)" (repetitive) d. "Many young people have entered Tokyo University (so far), (i.e. They may not be in the University now.)" (experiential) e. "Many young people have been entering Tokyo (successively University (one after another.)" P-P) /. "Many young people have been entering Tokyo (repetitively University (repeatedly)." P-P) g. "Many young people have entered Tokyo Uni-

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

159

versity (and they are still in the University), (i.e. They have been students at Tokyo University for the past four years, for example.)" (P-R) Summarizing the discussion of the 'P-R' aspect, the following must be re-stated: i. The 'P-R' aspect is a kind of resultative aspect, which refers to an existing state resultant from the termination of the event expressed by the verb. However, it pays attention to a stretch in time from the past to the present, and in this sense, it is also like the experiential aspect. ii. In the underlying structure for 'P-R,' an adverb specifying a stretch of time is considered to occur as a clause-mate of -te iru, the resultative formative. The complement verb must have the feature [ + completive]. Thus, it is relevant to non-stative verbs. iii. The -te am form used for the transitive resultative aspect is also relevant to the 'P-R' aspect. 4.7

SUSTENTIVE ASPECT

It was pointed out previously that the structure -te am expresses the meaning of voluntary retention of the result of some action or event. A similar meaning can be expressed by the structure of -te oku. The auxiliary verb oku here is no doubt related to the full verb oku which indicates meanings such as "to put down," "to place (something)," or "to set." The structure V-te oku refers to the voluntary retention of the result of some action for a future purpose (whether specific or not). Graphically, it may be represented as follows: (58)

In (58), A is the period during which the action described by the verb occurs, ending at B. Period C exists in anticipation of or in preparation for the new situation E, which begins at D. The structure V-te oku refers to situation C, during which the result of A is supposed to be maintained. This aspect will be called 'sustentive' aspect.

160

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

Strictly speaking, the 'sustentive' aspect is not entirely aspectual. It is considered that some kind of modality, which might be called 'preparatory' or 'anticipatory,' is also involved here. Observe the following examples: (59) a. Kore o san-zi made ni kawakasite oku. this OM three o'clock by dry "(I) will dry this by three o'clock (and keep it dry for some future purpose)." b. Sore o sirabete oku. that OM investigate "(I) will have it investigated (for some future purpose)." c. Sore o sono mama ni site oku. that OM as that is do "(I) will keep it as it is (for the time being or for some future purpose)." When some state is kept for a future purpose, the future is normally supposed to be somewhat remote, but does not exclude the possibility that the speaker may have the immediate future in mind. Associated with the meaning of "keep as it is" in (59c), the construction may seem to indicate that, in the period of A in diagram (58), nothing has happened. It must be understood, however, that the speaker voluntarily "did" something, such as refraining from touching or controlling other people, so that the state would be kept unchanged. Also associated with such a meaning, the construction indicates that the retention of the state is temporary, and that when an anticipated or appropriate situation arrives, the state will no longer be kept. Sometimes the meaning of 'anticipated event or situation' may seem quite vague; for example: (60) a. Hikooki-dai ga yasui uti ni ryokoo-site oku. air-fare SM cheap while travel "(I) will take a trip while the air-fare is cheap." b. Ima hanasite oku. now talk "(I) will talk now. (i.e. I will talk while I can.)" In both of these sentences, the meaning of 'preparation' is underlying, although it is rather difficult to see. For example, in (60a) it is implied that by taking the trip now, the speaker will be prepared, at least psychologically,

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

161

against inflation in the form of increased air fares. Example (606) has a similar meaning: perhaps, if the speaker talks now, he will be prepared for a later occasion when he is unable to talk. In this sense, (606) also has the implicit meaning of 'preparation' or 'anticipation.' Since the retention of the state brought about by the termination of action is voluntary, the subject in this construction must be animate. More important, the complement subject must be identical with the main sentence subject. In addition, the verb is considered to have a past tense form showing the completive aspect. The following examples all show these characteristics: (61) a. Watakusi ga mado o akete oita. I SM window OM open "I opened the window (and kept it open)." b. * Kaze ga mado o akete oita. wind Lit. "The wind opened the window (and kept it open)." c. Tanaka-san ga sono mizu o atatamete oita. Mr. Tanaka SM that water OM heat "Mr. Tanaka heated the water (and kept it warm)." d. * Taiyoo-netu ga sono mizu o atatamete oita. sun heat Lit. "The sun-heat heated the water (and kept it warm)." The outline structure for (61a), for example, may be represented as follows: (62)

162

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

The main verb te oku is restricted to an animate subject, but normally it is a human subject. Transformationally, the subject of 5"i must be deleted under identity with the subject of SQ, and the verb in 5"i becomes automatically raised to SQ and attached to the main verb, which produces the surface form akete oita. Notice that the complement verb has the feature [ +completive]. Although both the -te am and the -te oku constructions indicate voluntary retention of the result of some action, the following differences are the most conspicuous: (63) i. The -te am construction is perceived as stative, but the -te oku as non-stative. This is related to the fact that the verb aru is stative, but oku is non-stative. ii. Given the non-past tense form for both of them, the former refers to action finished before speech time, but the latter to action to be finished in the future. iii. The former may include the latter in construction; i.e. the latter may be embedded in the frame of the former, but never vice versa. iv. Only the latter is relevant to the desiderative, tentative, causative, passive, imperative, and potential formations. This is the necessary consequence of (63-i) above. v. Semantically, the meaning of "intended preparation for some future purpose" or of "intended retention for some future purpose" is stronger for -te oku than for -te aru. vi. The subjects of the main sentence and the complement sentence must be identical for -te oku, but such a requirement is irrelevant to -te aru. The above points may be exemplified by the following. With respect to (63i) and (63iv), the differences generally applicable to stative and nonstative forms apply. Observe the following: (64) a. * Mado o akete are! (imperative) window OM open Lit. "Have the windows been opened!" b. * Mado ga akete areru. (potential) Lit. "The windows are able to have been opened."

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

163

c. * Mado o akete araseru. (causative) Lit. "(I) make the windows to have been opened." d. * Mado o akete aritai. (desiderative) Lit. "I want the windows to have been opened." e. * Mado o akete arareru. (No reading is possible.) /. * Mado o akete atte mini, (No reading is possible.)

(passive)

(tentative)

In contrast to (64), the following sentences are all grammatical. (65) a. Mado o akete oke! (imperative) "Keep the windows opened." b. Mado o akete okeru. (potential) "(I) can leave the windows opened." c. Mado o akete okaseru. (causative) "(I) will make (him) keep the windows open." d. Mado o akete okitai. (desiderative) "(I) want to keep the windows opened." e. Mado o akete okareta. (passive) "(I) had the windows kept opened (by someone and I was inconvenienced.)" /. Mado o akete oite mini, (tentative) "(I) will try to keep the windows opened." All the forms in (65) are grammatical, and any other non-stative verb will behave in the same way. Point (63ii) may be illustrated by the following examples: (66) a. Tegami ga kaite am. letter SM write Lit. "The letter is there written./(I) have written the letter."

164

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

b. Watakusi wa tegami o kaite oku. I TM "I will have the letter written (in advance)." Example (66a) indicates that the letter has already been written as of the speech time, while in (66b) the letter is still to be written sometime in the future. In order for the te oku construction to refer to a situation in which the action is already finished at speech time, the past tense form must be used for the verb oku as in Tegami o kaite oita, "(I) wrote the letter (in advance)." Related to (63i), (63ii) and (63iv), there are differences of co-occurrence restrictions that stem from the fundamental stativity vs. non-stativity characteristic of am as against oku. As mentioned previously, the non-past tense forms of the stative verbs do not usually refer to future actions or events, while the non-past tense forms of the non-stative verbs regularly refer to the future. Thus, the following co-occurrence differences can be observed: (67) a. * Okane ga areba asita sore o katte am. money SM if existed tomorrow that OM buy Lit. "If (I) have money, (I) will have bought it tomorrow." b. Okane ga areba asita sore o katte oku. "If (I) have money, (I) will buy it tomorrow (in advance)." c. * Tanaka-san ga kitara, sore o asita hanasite am. Mr. Tanaka SM if came that OM tomorrow talk Lit. "If Mr. Tanaka came, (I) would have talked (to him) about that tomorrow." d. Tanaka-san ga kitara, sore o asita hanasite oku. "If Mr. Tanaka came, (I) would talk (to him) about that (in advance)." In (67a) the co-occurrence of asita, "tomorrow," in the construction of -te am is unacceptable because the construction does not refer to a future situation, and the same can be said about (67c). However, in (67b) and (67d) the occurrence of asita with -te oku is perfectly normal, since the action is to take place in the future, and the non-stative oku in its non-past tense form refers to a future situation anyway, like any other non-stative verb. Point (63iii) stems from the fact that both -te am and -te oku must have

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

165

non-stative complement verbs. Since oku is a non-stative verb, it can be a complement for -te aru, but am, a stative verb, cannot be a complement for -te oku. Therefore, (63iii) is also a logical consequence of (63i). The following examples demonstrate this situation: (68) a. * Mado ga akete atte oku. window SM open (No reading is possible, but Mado ga akete aru is embedded in the frame of -te oku.) b. Mado ga akete oite aru. "The window has been opened (in advance)." In order to substantiate point (63v), Yoshikawa's observation may be useful. He correctly states19 that the hierarchy of the meaning of volition implied in each of the -te oku, -te aru and -te iru (resultative) are: V-te oku > NP-o V-te aru > NP-ga V-te aru > NP-ga V-te iru. They all refer to a post-terminative situation with respect to the complement verb, but in the light of the fact that oku is a non-stative volitional verb, it is understandable that -te oku is stronger than -te aru with respect to the meaning of volition. Point (63vi) is illustrated by a diagram such as (62). The diagram for -te aru, however, should look like the one in (17)20 in which the subject of the complement sentence is irrelevant to the subject of the main verb. Summarizing this section, the following points are recapitulated: i. The sustentive aspect is expressed by V-te oku and refers to a situation in which the result of the action indicated by the verb is voluntarily retained for a new situation. ii. The embedded verb must be non-stative. Also, the entire verb phrase is understood as non-stative since oku is non-stative. It is semantically and grammatically different from the -te aru construction, although both of them refer to the post-terminative situation of the action expressed by the complement verb. iii. The subject of the construction must be animate; most normally, it must be a human noun. iv. The subject of the main sentence and complement sentence must be identical.

166

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

4.8

TERMINATIVE ASPECT (EMOTIVE)

In addition to all the post-terminative aspects discussed so far, the aspectual form which is relevant to the terminative point of action or event expressed by the form V-te simau must be examined. It expresses the meaning of complete termination of the action or event indicated by the complement verb. Semantically, the phrase V-te simau as a whole has a feature [ — durative]. The auxiliary verb simau here is associated with the full verb simau, "to put (something) away," with a feature of [— stative]. In English translation, V-te simau is usually associated with "up" or "through" as in "I ate it up," or "I read it through." Since it refers to the termination of an action or event, it is not used to indicate the 'termination' of a state. In this sense, it is different from the simple past tense form which may indicate mere past states as well as the completion of actions or events. Since simau is non-stative, V-te simau, its non-past tense form, indicates that the action expressed by the verb is, as of speech time, to be completed. If it is in the past tense form, the action or event indicated by the complement verb is supposed to have been completed as of speech time. This means that, regardless of the time of actual completion, the event expressed by the complement verb must somehow be completive; for example: (69) a. Kono hon o kinoo yonde simatta. this book OM yesterday read (past tense) "(I) read this book through yesterday." b. Kono hon o asita yonde simau. tomorrow (non-past tense) "(I) will read this book through tomorrow." Since the -te simau construction indicates the termination point of action or event, it does not co-occur with verbs that have the feature of [ —temporal]. Therefore, phrases such as *omodatte simau, lit. "to end up in being prominent," or *sobiete simau, lit. "to finish towering," are ungrammatical. Because a simple past tense form indicating the completion of action can refer to a termination point, semantically the terminative aspect and the completive aspect are often indistinguishable. However, V-te simau often implies that the terminated action is unrecoverable, while the V-ta form does not have such an implication. Associated with this meaning, the former may imply that the speaker is regretful or proud, of the fact that the action or event expressed by the complement verb took place. This is certainly true of regret when the verb or the sentence is considered to express some undesirable or unintentional action or event; alternatively the -te simau form may imply

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

167

pride when the verb or the sentence expresses an action or event which is considered to be desirable. These meanings are illustrated as follows: (70) a. Kono kawaii kingyo wa sinde simatta. this cute gold fish TM die "This cute goldfish has died (and I regret it)." b. Okane ga nakunatte simatta. money SM disappear "The money has disappeared (and I regret it)." c. Moo syukudai o kaite simatta. already home work OM write "(I) have already written the homework (and I am proud of it)." d. Sono mondai wa toite simatta. that problem TM solve "(I) have solved that problem (and I am proud of it)." In the above, the first two are interpreted in terms of regret, and the last two, in terms of pride. Whether the action or event expressed by the verb is considered to be desirable or not depends not only upon the inherent semantic nature of the verb, but also upon the total meaning of the sentence including the presupposition or the context. Therefore, even a verb such as sinu, "to die," which is normally associated with an undesirable event, may be used in certain contexts with the meaning of "pride" in the -te simau construction. Thus, for example, suppose a scientist has successfully developed a method for exterminating some harmful insects such as "fire ants," the verb sinu may be associated with a desirable meaning: (71) a. Kono hoohoo de ari wa zenbu sinde simatta. this method with ants TM all die "With this method, the ants all died (and I am proud of it)." Example (71) shows that the whole sentence as well as the whole context must be taken into consideration to account for whether or not the action or event expressed by the verb is meant to be desirable. Therefore, when the context is not clear, the sentence is ambiguous as to the implied meaning.21 Regardless of whether the -te simau implies regret or pride in a sentence, it does also indicate that the termination point of action or event has arrived (or will arrive) earlier than expected. Thus, in (7Qa) the expectation is that

168

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

the goldfish would not die then, and in (70c) the expectation of the hearer as presupposed by the speaker is that the homework could not be done so quickly. Such an implication is non-existent in the V-ta form. Sometimes, the -te simau construction may simply refer to the fact that the event or action described by the complement verb has been completed. This is especially true when the te simau construction occurs as a subordinate clause. There is a similar tendency when the verb expresses some action or event that has little to do with human volition or desire. Even in such a case, however, the -te simau construction is different from the simple past tense form in that it clearly indicates a thorough completion of the event or action: (72) a. Hata wa kawaite simau to hirahira kaze ni nabiita. flag TM dry then flapping wind to flowed "When the flag got dry (completely), it flowed in the wind flaping." b. Kare wa daigaku o dete simau to ginkooin ni natta. he TM university leave then bank employee became "After he graduated from college, he become a bank employee." c. Kyaku ga minna kaette simatte kara heya o soozi-sita. guest SM all return after room OM cleaned "(I) cleaned the room after all the guests left." Notice that in all of the examples above, the objective facts are mentioned without implying regret or pride. In them, the -te simau forms simply refer to the thorough completion of the actions or events expressed by the verbs. Thus, as in (72), the -te simau form as a complement should be described as tending to be neutral with respect to the implication of regret or pride. This is only a tendency, however, and the meaning of regret or pride cannot be excluded altogether from the embedded -te simau, especially when its subject is human. Closely associated with the implication of regret are cases in which 'an action or event expressed by the verb involuntarily takes place. The verbs typically occurring with such a meaning are non-self-controllable verbs such as hukidasu, "to burst into laughter," odoroku, "to get surprised," or tukareru, "to get tired." They frequently co-occur with the adverb tui "inadvertently," and they normally imply the meaning of regret. Observe the following: (73) a. Okasikatta node, tui hukidasite simatta. was funny because inadvertently burst into laughter "Because it was funny, (I) inadvertently burst into laughter."

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

169

b. Zenzen yosoo mo sinakatta node, odoroite simatta. at all expect even didn't because was surprised "Because it was something (I) didn't expect at all, (I) was surprised." Although the implication of regret is not immediately observable, it is certainly mildly present in the examples above. There are also cases in which a non-stative durative self-controllable verb occurs in the -te simau construction together with the adverb tui. In such a case, it could be considered that the verb is temporarily acting as a non-selfcontrollable verb; for example: (74)

Biiru ga oisikatta node, tui san-bon beer SM was good because inadvertently three bottles nonde simatta. drink "Because the beer was good, (I) inadvertently drank three bottles."

The verb nomu, "to drink," in (74) must be understood as non-self-controllable in this context. Closely associated with the implication of pride, the -te simau construction can also refer to the meaning of consciously and positively bringing a certain action to early completion. That is, it signifies the speaker's effort to bring about the completion; the examples in (75) illustrate this: (75) a. Sonna syukudai wa Isolde yatte simatta yo. such homework TM hurriedly do "(I) did such homework in no time, you know." b. Asita made ni kore o tukutte simau. tomorrow by this OM make "(I) will finish making this by tomorrow." c. Kanozyo to sassato wakarete simatta. she with without hesitation break up "(I) broke up with her without hesitation." Notice that there is a meaning in all the examples above that the speaker voluntarily and speedily brought about or will bring about the stated situation, and that the meaning of pride is also underlying. The implication of pride or regret in the -te simau construction should

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

170

really be considered to lie within the category of modality. As far as the category of aspect is concerned, -te simau refers to the termination point of an action or event. Thus, if we take, for example, the meaning of regret into consideration, the outline structure of -te simau may be represented as follows: (76)

When the meaning of regret or pride is non-existent in the -te simau construction, it is considered that only S\ in (76) is involved as its underlying structure. Summarizing this section, the following points must be re-stated: i. The V-te simau form refers to thorough completion of an action or event expressed by the complement verb. ii. It cannot be derived from the complement verb expressing state, nor can it be derived from a verb with the feature [—temporal]. iii. The -te simau form has features [— stative, — durative, . . . ]. iv. It may imply regret or pride associated with the implication of voluntary, positive and early completion of the action or event. It may also imply inadvertent occurrences of events, which are represented by non-self-controllable verbs. v. The emotive implications of regret or pride must be considered in terms of modality.

Aspectual Categories in Japanese 4.9

171

INGRESSIVE ASPECT

The Japanese directional motion verbs kuru, "come," and iku, "go," in the structure V-te kuru and V-te iku can be used to express the aspectual meaning of the beginning of a new situation. The verbs in these constructions must be process verbs as well as non-self-controllable. The constructions refer to the natural and/or gradual coming into being of a situation, or a transition phase from one stage to another. The feature [ +process] involves the meaning of gradual appearance or disappearance of something, or of continuous changing events or actions requiring a certain amount of time before completion. Verbs such as wakaru, "to be understandable," naoru, "to heal," or wasureru, "to forget," which can normally occur in the V-te kuru or V-te iku form, are considered typical examples of process verbs. They co-occur most appropriately with adverbs like dandan, "gradually," and sukosi-zutu, "little by little," which express degrees of change that are relevant to process. The verbs kuru and iku originally express the meaning of spatial motion, but in the constructions under discussion the motion is only psychologically present; those verbs are also deictic. Therefore, whether kuru or iku is to be used depends upon the speaker's point of view regarding the situation. The aspectual uses of these verbs are no doubt closely related to their original uses as full motion verbs. Their usage as motion verbs will first be described briefly: (77) a. Watakusi wa koko ni kesa kita. I TM here to this morning came "I came here this morning." b. * Watakusi wa koko ni kesa itta. went (Not pointing to a place on a map.) Lit. "I went here this morning." c. * Watakusi wa soko ni koko kara kita. there to here from came Lit. "I came there from here." d. Watakusi wa soko ni kesa itta. "I went there this morning." It is possible to generalize by saying that kuru is used for a motion toward the place where the speaker is (or was, or will be), and iku, for a motion away

172

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

from the speaker. Therefore, the goal adverb koko ni, "to this place," most ideally co-occurs with kuru, and the other goal adverbs soko ni, "to that place" and asoko ni, "to that place over there" normally occur with iku. However, it does not mean that the goal adverbs soko ni and asoko ni cannot co-occur with kuru. If the starting point of the motion is farther away than the goal from the speaker's point of view, kuru may occur with soko ni or asoko ni. Notice that in such a case the motion is toward the speaker. Thus, a sentence such as the following is quite natural: (78)

Soko ni basu ga kita. there t© bus SM came "The bus came over there."

These basic meanings and uses of kuru and iku are significant for aspectual purposes. When they are used for such purposes, they lose their original meaning of spatial motion, and kuru expresses the meaning of a transition process which is perceived to be toward the speaker, psychologically. Thus, the process may be concerned with a gradual transition from "nothing to something," or from one stage to another. It is typically concerned with the inception of an event that is presently relevant, or the development of an event up to a specific pivotal point of time from which the event is viewed. On the other hand, when iku is used, it expresses the meaning of a transition process beyond or parallel to the point from which the speaker is supposed to be viewing the event. Like kuru, the transition process of iku is concerned with the inceptive stage of an event or the development of an event from one stage to another. Thus, with respect to one and the same situation, either kuru or iku can be used depending upon the speaker's choice of viewpoint, although a situation relevant to the present moment is more amenable to kuru, and other circumstances, to iku. Therefore, the aspectual uses of kuru and iku must be considered deictic, just as their uses as full motion verbs are deictic. Their deictic uses may be represented graphically as follows: (79)

Notice that in (79), (a) and (b) refer to the same objective fact; however, the points of view are different, or they are shifted.22 Associated with (79), observe the following sentences: (80) a. Gasorin ga nakunatte kita. gasoline SM disappear came

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

173

"Gasoline began to get scarce." a'. Gasorin ga nakunatte itta. went "Gasoline began to get scarce (from then on)." b. Byooki wa dandan yoku natte kita. illness TM gradually well become came "The illness gradually began to get better." b'. Byooki wa dandan yoku natte itta. "The illness gradually began to get better (from then on)." The sentences in each pair above are differentiated by the points of view. The actual situations expressed by (80a) and (80a')> for example, can be exactly the same. However, if the situation of the scarcity of gasoline or of the recovery from illness is presently relevant and the speaker is involved in the situation, (80a') and (80&') are less likely to be used. Sentence (80a) may be considered appropriate to describe the present-day world oil situation, but in the year 2000 or 2500 either (80a) or (80a') may appropriately be used in a narrative that describes the world situation in the 1970's or 1980's. This also means that the use of iku implies that the speaker is not directly involved with the stated situation. The contrast exemplified by (80a) and (80a') normally prevails, but another point that must be mentioned is that iku is more likely to be used to describe the initial stage of transition toward the termination of a state or event. When it is so used, the normal implication is that the situation eventually arrived at the termination.23 Thus, example (80a) does not imply that gasoline became non-existent, but (80a') is likely to imply that gasoline actually became exhausted. Likewise, (80&) does not imply that the illness was finally cured, although (80&') does. Since the meanings of V-te kuru and V-te iku under discussion are associated with the inceptive stage of transition, it is semantically impossible to relate them to verbs which are irrelevant to the meaning of inception of a transition process, such as verbs which normally have the feature [ —process]. Expectedly, many of the punctual verbs do not occur in those constructions, as the following examples show: (81) a. * Kono taiya wa panku-site kita. this tire TM puncture Lit. "This tire began to get punctured."

174

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

b. * Tanaka-san wa kekkon-site kita. Lit. "Mr. Tanaka began to get married." (The above sentence is grammatical only if it is intended to mean, "Mr. Tanaka came back married.") There are verbs which are normally perceived as punctual but which are used in combination with hum and iku expressing the aspectual meaning of the beginning of a new situation. Such verbs must be considered relevant to the feature [+process] in certain environments. Observe the following: (82) a. To ga dandan aite kita. door SM gradually open "The door gradually began to open./The door gradually came opening." b. To ga dandan simatte kita. close "The door gradually began to close./The door came gradually closed." Notice that the verbs in (82) are normally conceived as punctual in combination with -te iru. Thus, aite iru, "is open" and simatte iru, "is closed" can only refer to resultative states, not to on-going events. However, those verbs must semantically be considered relevant to the feature [+process] because the event of opening or closing must necessarily involve developmental stages. In short, while the feature of punctuality is logically incompatible with the ingressive aspect, there are punctual verbs that must be considered amenable to the feature [ +process] in certain environments. Thus, aku and simaru, for example, are interpreted as [+process] verbs in the environments of -te kuru and -te iku, regardless of whether the subject noun is singular or plural. On the other hand, a punctual verb such as nakunaru, "to disappear," ataru, "to hit," deru, "to get out," and some others may be considered to acquire the feature [ + process] in relation to the whole sentence, including the characteristics of the subject. This situation is similar to the case of assigning the feature [+successive] or [ + repetitive] to a sentence with a predicate verb that is basically considered punctual. (See (11), this chapter.) The following are examples: (83) a. Mizu wa sukosi-zutu nakunatte kita. water TM little by little disappear "Water gradually began to get scarce."

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

175

b. Kare ga utu tamo. wa dandan mato ni atatte kita. he SM fire bullets TM gradually target at hit "The bullets that he fired gradually began to hit the target." c. * Watakusi no sono tokei wa sukosi-zutu nakunatte kita. I of that watch TM little by little disappear Lit. "That watch of mine began gradually to disappear." d. * Kono tama wa dandan mato ni atatte kita. this bullet TM gradually target at hit Lit. "This bullet gradually began to hit the target." e. Sono/Sore-ra no to ga dandan aite kita. that those of door(s) SM gradually open "That/Those door(s) gradually began to open." In (83^), the subject can be either plural or singular. Notice that in (83a) and (83&), the occurrence of punctual verbs is perfectly normal, although the same verbs are not allowed in (83c) and (83of). Apparently the feature of the subject noun makes the difference. In (83a) and (83&) the subjects are divisible, but in (83c) and (83d) they are not. It seems the feature [ +process] must be assigned to sentences in which such punctual verbs occur, and the rule for the assignment of such a feature must be similar to (11) in this chapter. In particular, verbs with the features of [ — durative, —process,. . . ] may still be relevant to the interpretation of [ +process] with respect to the entire sentences in which they occur. The required rule for such an interpretation must be the following: (84)

Rule (84) presupposes that, in general, punctual verbs are irrelevant to the feature of process, but it specifies that as long as the subjects are divisible, they can be relevant to the meaning or process. Therefore, although the predicate verbs themselves are punctual and without the meaning of process, the following sentences (a) and (b) are grammatical, but the last one (c) is not:

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

176

(85) a. Mizu wa sukosi-zutu nakunatta. water TM little by little disappeared "The water disappeared little by little." b. Hitobito ga dandan sinde kita. people SM gradually die "People gradually began to die." c. * Sono hito ga dandan sinde kita.24 that person gradually die "That person gradually began to die." Example (85c) is ungrammatical because it has an indivisible subject cooccurring with a punctual verb modified by an adverb with the meaning of process. Once a sentence is assigned the feature [ + process], it can be embedded in the frame of -te kuru or -te iku. Thus, the outline structure of (856) for example, should look like (86). (86)

Diagram (86), in fact, should further be specified with respect to the features of -te kita. Since it is different from -te itta, it must be differentiated by the feature [+proximal], and -te itta, then, must be specified as [—proximal]. Both of them should also be specified as [ + motion]. It is to be understood that those features are all psychological; therefore, the feature of [ + psychological] must also be added. Furthermore, the verb of S\ generally seems to have the feature of [ —self-controllable] in order for the construction to have an ingressive meaning. It is true that, in some cases, the verb may appear to be [+self-controllable] as in the case of a sentences such as Sono ko wa dandan aruite kita, "That child gradually began to walk." Even in this case, however, it must be understood that the interpretation is somewhat forced, and that the interpretation is made in terms of a more normal sentence such as Sono ko wa dandan aruku yoo ni natte kita, Lit. "That child gradually

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

177

became so that he could walk," in which the verb naru, "become," must be [—self-controllable ]. In the light of these considerations, the outline structure for an ingressive construction may be characterized as follows: (87)

In general, the feature [+durative] in a verb is considered to be closely associated with the feature [+ process], and if the verb has the feature [+process], the whole sentence is considered to be [+process]. It seems logical that durativity should include process, which must be relevant to the inception of a situation. Stative verbs are durative, but some of them must be excluded from an ingressive construction. Certain stative verbs such as am, "to exist," iru, "to exist," im, "to need," or ataru, "to correspond to," never occur in this construction. On the other hand, other stative verbs such as wakaru, "is understandable," mieru, "is visible," and kikoeru, "to be audible," regularly occur in it. Therefore, we must say that some stative verbs are [+process], and others are [—process]. Also, some of the theoretically non-stative verbs may occur in this contruction, while others do not. The former may have the feature [ +process], the latter [ —process]. In the same way, the normal non-stative verbs are also divided into two categories on the basis of the feature [+ process]. Rule (84) was presented as applicable to a [—process] verb in order that the sentence in which it occurs may be interpreted as [ +process]. However, it must not be applied to a [ —process] verb which is stative or only theoretically non-stative. For those verbs, even if the subjects are [+divisible], the interpretation of the sentence in terms of [ +process] is difficult. In order to show these restrictions, the features of the verb in (84) should further be specified as [—stative, + temporal,. . . ]. The following examples illustrate the situations mentioned above:

178

Tense and Aspect in Modem Japanese

(88) a. * Tukiyama ga soko ni atte kita. mound SM there at exist Lit. "A mound began to exist there." b. * Hitobito ga soko ni ite kita. people SM there at be Lit. "People began to exist there." (The above sentence is grammatical only if it is intended to mean, "People lived there and (then) came (here).") c. * Okane ga itte kita. money SM need Lit. "Money began to be necessary." d. * Miruku wa bin ni haitta gyuunyuu to yuu kotoba milk TM bottle in entered milk word ni attate kita. to correspond Lit. "Miruku began to correspond to the word 'bottled milk.'" e. Huzi-san ga dandan miete kita. Mount Fuji SM gradually visible "Mount Fuji gradually came in sight." /. Tikagoro eigo ga sukosi-zutu hanasete kita. recently English SM little by little able to speak "Recently, (he) has begun to be able to speak English little by little." g. Eigo ga dandan wakatte kita. understand "English has begun to make sense gradually." h. Musoko wa dandan titi-oya ni nite kita. son TM father to resemble "The son began to look gradually like the father." /. * Yama ga dandan sobiete kita. mountain SM tower Lit. "The mountain gradually began to tower."

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

179

j. * Kare wa dandan bakagete kita. be silly Lit. "He began to be silly gradually." k. * Sore ga dandan omodatte kita. that be important Lit. "That began to be of importance." /. * Yama-yama ga dandan sobiete kita. mountains tower Lit. "Mountains gradually began to tower (one after another)." m. * Kare-ra wa dandan bakagete kita. be silly Lit. "They began to be silly (one after another)." n. * Sore-ra ga dandan omodatte kita. those be important Lit. "Those began gradually to be important (one after another)." In (88), the first four sentences exemplify stative verbs that cannot occur in ingressive constructions; sentences (8Se, 88/, and 88g) illustrate stative verbs with the feature [+process]; and sentence (88/z) shows that the verb niru, which is theoretically non-stative, can occur in an ingressive construction since it may have the feature [ 4-process] and is outside of (84). However, the last six examples indicate that the theoretically non-stative verbs with the features of [—process, —temporal, . . . ] cannot occur in ingressive constructions, regardless of the feature of the subject. The [—self-controllable] feature of the complement verb of ingressive constructions must be discussed a little further. This feature indicates that the transition indicated by the verb takes place more or less as 'a natural course of events.' Such a semantic characteristic is consistent with the feature of 'non-self-controllability' of the verb. Thus, observe the following sentences: (89) a. Kare wa sono hon o dandan yomu yoo ni natte kita. he TM that book OM gradually read such become Lit. "He has gradually become in such a way that he reads that book. (i.e. He gradually began to read that book.)" b. Kare wa miruku o sukosi-zutu nomu yoo ni natte kita. he milk little by little drink became

180

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

Lit. "He gradually became in such a way that he drinks milk, (i.e. He gradually began to drink milk [as a habit, etc.])" In (89) the immediate complement verb naru, "to become," is perceived to be relevant to the feature [+process] in much the same way that aku, "to open" is; it is also perceived to be [ —self-controllable]. Thus, although naru itself has a further complement sentence embedded, which is interpreted as [ + self-controllable] the overall meaning of sentence (89a) is in reference to a natural course of events. The same is true of (89b). Most of the non-self-controllable verbs seem to be intransitive, but there are some self-controllable intransitive verbs, too. Even if a verb is intransitive, as far as it is self-controllable, it is still irrelevant to the ingressive construction. This point is shown in examples (90): (90) a. *Kare wa aruite kita. he TM walk Intended to mean: "He began to walk." (The above sentence is grammatical only if it is intended to mean, "He came walking.") b. * Kare wa yasunde kita. rest Intended to mean: "He began to rest." (The above example is grammatical only if it is intended to mean, "He came having rested.") c. * Sono tori ga tonde kita. that bird SM fly Intended to mean: "That bird began to fly." (The above sentence is grammatical only if it is intended to mean, "The bird came flying.") Notice that all the verbs in the above examples are intransitive, but since they are also self-controllable verbs, they are perceived to be irrelevant to the ingressive construction. Verbs describing the weather may be considered to have the feature of [—self-controllable], since they are outside human control. Thus, they are relevant to the ingressive aspect: (91) a. Ame ga hutte kita. rain SM fall "It began to rain."

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

181

b. Kaze ga huite kita. wind SM blow "It began to blow." c. Umi ga arete kita. sea SM rough "The sea began to get rough." d. Hi ga tette kita. sun SM shine "The sun began to shine." Some transitive verbs are also relevant to the ingressive aspect, but they are typically associated with the feature of non-self-controllability; for instance: (92) a. Eigo o dandan wasurete kita. English OM gradually forget "(I) gradually began to forget English." b. Kare wa kanzi o dandan oboete kita. he TM Chinese character gradually learn "He began to learn kanzi gradually." c. Ikioi o sukosi-zutu morikaesite kita. power OM little by little regain "(They) began to regain power little by little." When they occur with -te iru, all of the transitive verbs in (92) can be punctual verbs expressing the resultative aspect. This situation is the same as that for aku, "open." However, they are also perceived as non-selfcontrollable process verbs. The verb wasureru is perceived as non-selfcontrollable, since one can hardly control the phenomenon of forgetting. The verb oboeru is so perceived, too, since acquiring something in one's brain is partly outside human control, although deliberate learning activities can be controlled. The verb morikaesu is also perceived as non-selfcontrollable since regaining power may need some factors other than one's will. It must be emphasized here that whether a verb is [+controllable] or [ —controllable] is a matter of perception particular to each language or to the environment in which the verb occurs. Since the verbs in (92) have both process and non-self-controllable features, the example sentences express a natural and normally gradual process.

182

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

To summarize the discussion of this section, the following points are recapitulated: i. Motion verbs kuru and iku following the gerund form of verbs express ingressive aspect. ii. The Japanese ingressive aspect expresses the meaning of a natural and normally gradual beginning of a new situation. iii. V-te kuru expresses the meaning of transition toward the point from which the event is supposed to be viewed, and V-te iku, the meaning of transition away from that viewpoint. iv. Some punctual verbs which can express the meaning of process such as aku, "to open" may be considered to have the feature of [+ process] and to be relevant to the ingressive aspect. v. Most punctual verbs are irrelevant to this structure, but if the subject noun is with the feature [+divisible], they may be used for the ingressive aspect construction. Also, verbs with the feature of [—process, — temporal . . . ] are irrelevant to this structure. vi. The features [+process ] and [—self-controllable ] are the two essential features for this construction. 4.10

COMPOUND VERB FORMS

In the previous sections, all the constructions relevant to aspectual categories are syntactically formed using certain verbs as auxiliaries separate from the complement verbs. In this section, compound verb forms for indicating aspectual categories will be discussed. Typically such forms are composed of two verbs morphologically conjoined, with the first verb V\ in its conjunctive form as inyom-i-hazimeru,25 "to begin to read." The first verb V\ indicates an action or event, and the second verb YI shows an aspectual category; this compound form is perceived to be grammatically unitary. Since Vi indicates various developmental stages of an action or event, such a compound verb form is relevant to various aspectual categories. 4.10.1 Inceptive Aspect The inceptive aspect is indicated by -hazimeru, "to begin," or -dasu, "to start," as in nom-i-hazimeru, "to begin to drink," oryom-i-dasu, "to begin to

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

183

read." In contrast to the ingressive aspect form, the inceptive aspect under discussion is applicable to self-controllable as well as non-self-controllable verbs. Compare the following examples with those in (90) in the previous section: (93) a. Kare wa aruk-i-hazimeta. he TM walk "He began to walk." b. Kare wa yasum-i-hazimeta. rest "He began to rest." c. Sono tori ga tob-i-hazimeta. that bird SM fly "That bird began to fly." Notice that the examples above are all well formed, although the corresponding sentences in (90) are all ungrammatical. The following examples are all as grammatical as those in (91), and the verbs are all non-selfcontrollable. (94) a. Ame ga hur-i-hazimeta. rain SM fall "It began to rain." b. Kaze ga huk-i-hazimeta. wind SM blow "It began to blow." c. Umi ga are-hazimeta.26 sea SM rough "The sea began to get rough. d. Hi ga ter-i-hazimeta. sun SM shine "The sun began to shine." Like the ingressive aspect, the inceptive aspect is irrelevant to punctual verbs, as well as to verbs that express the meaning of permanent state without the feature [+process]. Thus, observe the following:

184

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

(95) a. * Sono taiya ga panku-s-i-hazimeta. that tire SM get punctured Lit. "That tire began to get punctured." b. * Sono bakudan ga bakuhatu-s-i-hazimeta. that bomb SM explode Lit. "That bomb began to explode." c. * Sono hito wa watakusi no ozi ni atar-i-hazimeta. that person I of uncle to be in relation Lit. "That person began to be related to me as uncle." d. * Sono yama ga sobie-hazimeta. that mountain SM tower Lit. "That mountain began to tower." Punctual verbs that are relevant to the feature [+process], however, are acceptable for use in the inceptive forms. Also, some of the theoretically non-stative verbs that have the feature [—temporal] may still be relevant to this construction, as long as they are with the feature [+process]. In this sense, an inceptive form shares some similar characteristics with an ingressive form; the following examples illustrate this: (96) a. Mado ga dandan ak-i-hazimeta. window SM gradually open "The window gradually began to open." b. To ga dandan simar-i-hazimeta. door SM gradually close "The door gradually began to close." c. Musoko wa titi-oya ni dandan ni-hazimeta.21 son TM father to gradually resemble "The son gradually began to look like (his) father." The aspectual categories expressed by V-i-hazimeru/'-dasu and V-te kuru/iku are both concerned with the beginning of a situation, but there is some semantic difference between the two. It is sometimes considered that in the former, the inception can be pin-pointed in time,28 while in the latter it cannot; this observation seems basically correct. However, the difference is not always clear-cut, and the inception point may often seem more vague for the former than for the latter. This may be because of the manner in which the inception is perceived to occur:

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

185

(97) a. Tyoodo ku-zi ni kyuu ni ante ga hutte kita. just nine o'clock, at suddenly rain SM fall "At exactly nine o'clock, it suddenly began to rain." b Ku-zi-goro ame ga hur-i-hazimeta. about nine o'clock rain SM fall "It began to rain about nine o'clock." c. Tyoodo ku-zi ni ame ga hur-i-hazimeta. "Just at nine o'clock it began to rain." In the above examples, (97a) pin-points the time as sharply as (97c), although subjectively it is felt that the former may indicate a more gradual inception with respect to its manner, not necessarily with respect to the point of time. Thus it appears that the essential difference between the meanings of inception described by those two structures must lie in the more or less subjective view of the manner of inception: the V-te kuru/iku structure implies 'transition,' while V-i-hazimeru/-dasu has no such implication. In this sense, the former is associated with the meaning of inception in the process of transition, however abrupt the actual situation may be. On the other hand, the latter is concerned with only the beginning of an event or action, regardless of whether or not any transition is involved in reality. From the morphological point of view, hazimeru is a transitive verb and its intransitive counterpart is hazimaru. However, the grammaticality of such a sentence as Ame ga hur-i-hazimaru is somewhat questionable, although dialectally it seems possible. Rather than the intransitive form hur-i-hazimaru, the morphologically transitive form hur-i-hazimeru is used in practice. In other words, V-i-hazimeru has both transitive and intransitive29 functions. Moreover, if Vis transitive, a sentence such as (98) would be ambiguous: (98) Kare wa hon o yom-i-hazimeta. he TM book OM read a. "He began to read the book. (i.e. His reading began.)" b. "He started reading the book. (i.e. He initiated reading the book.)" A question arises from these situations as to what will be a reasonable explanation for the transitive -hazimeru to be used like an intransitive verb in some cases. Shibatani (1973) proposes a solution to this question. He theorizes that if the meaning of V-i-hazimeru (and other similar aspectual constructions) is intransitive, it must be derived from an intransitive structure; but if its meaning is transitive, then it has a transitive underlying structure.

186

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

Thus, according to his proposal, (946), for example, may be explained on the basis of the following structure: (99)

Although the verb hazimeta, "began," is a transitive verb, (99) allows it to be used as an intransitive verb, and as such it cannot take an agent subject. Structure (99), therefore, is responsible for the meaning "Wind blowing began." The ambiguity of (98) may be explained as follows, on the basis of Shibatani's hypothesis: (100)

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

187

The intransitive structure (lOOa) is considered to be responsible for the intransitive meaning (98a), and (100&), for the transitive meaning (98Z?). It can also be observed that (100&) uses the verb hazimeta as a transitive verb with kare, "he," as the agent. Transformationally, (100&) directly produces (98) by Equi- NP deletion.30 Shibatani's explanations are straightforward and have cross-linguistic validity.31 However, an alternative solution may be to generate V-i-hazimeru morphologically, and assign the reading of a transitive or intransitive meaning, just in case Vis [+self-controllable]. If Vis [—self controllable], only the intransitive reading can be assigned.32 The following recapitulation summarizes the main points in this section. i. V-i-hazimeru/-dasu forms refer to the inceptive aspect and are relevant both to self-controllable and non-self-controllable verbs. ii. Punctual verbs and [—temporal, —process, . . . ] verbs are generally irrelevant to those structures. iii. Some punctual verbs, if they can be interpreted as process verbs, can be interpreted in the V-i-hazimeru/-dasu constructions. iv. With respect to non-self-controllable verbs, V-te kuru/-iku forms indicate the transitional manner of inception, while V-i-hazimeru/ -dasu forms state only the beginning of actions or events. v. V-i-hazimeru may be ambiguous. If the verb is self-controllable, it may indicate that the agent initiates the action, or it may refer to the beginning of the stated event. For the latter interpretation, V-ihazimeru is considered to be functioning as intransitive, although its form is transitive. 4.10.2 Attenuative Aspect The development of an event or action, to a very limited extent or at the very initial stage, is expressed by using the verb kakeru, lit. "hang, suspend," in the structure of V-i-kaheru as in yom-i-kakeru. The attenuative aspect construction tends to be used most normally for a situation in which the development of the described event or action is suddenly stopped soon after it was started:

188

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

(101) a. Benkyoo-s-i-kaketa toki ni Tanaka-san ga kita. study when at Mr. Tanaka SM came "Mr. Tanaka came when (I) began to study." b. Piano o hik-i-kaketa toki ni denwa ga atta. piano OM play when at telephone SM there was "When I began to play the piano, there was a phone call." c. Biiru o nom-i-kaketa tokoro desu. beer OM drink point is "(We are at) the point where (we) have just begun to drink beer." As the translations suggest, their meanings may be interpreted in the same way as those of the inceptive aspect described in the preceding section. It is even possible that one and the same objective fact may be expressed by either an inceptive or an attenuative construction. However, the former is concerned with the inception point of the action or event, and the latter with a slight development of the action or event. Both can be expressed in English by "begin" or "start." Since the attentuative aspect is concerned with a slight development of an event or action, it must be irrelevant to a purely punctual verb, which by definition cannot have any degree of development. Thus, the following examples are all ungrammatical: (102) a. * Kaminari ga ot-i-kaketa. thunder SM began to fall Lit. "The thunder began to fall. (i.e. The lightning began to hit.)" b. * Sono taiya ga panku-s-i-kaketa. that tire SM began to get punctured Lit. "That tire began to get punctured." c. * Sono bakudan ga bakuhatu-s-i-kaketa. that bomb SM began to explode." Lit. "That bomb began to explode." Example (1020) must be interpreted with respect to a single bolt of lightning. Normally, when lightning hits something, no beginning can be perceived as separate from the ending, and hence, there cannot be any degree of

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

189

development of the event. Therefore, (102a) is a semantically impossible statement. The same can be said of the others: in the explosion of a single bomb, or a tire getting punctured, there can be no development of the event. At least, in Japanese it is so perceived. Therefore, the sentences in (102) are all impossible. Punctual verbs that can be interpreted in terms of [+process], or [+durative] in the structure of -tutu am, may occur in the attenuative construction. For example, ak-i-kakeru, "to begin to open," wakar-i-kakeru, "to begin to understand," or naor-i-kakeru, "to begin to heal" are perfectly normal. Although the verbs are perceived as punctual in the construction of V-te iru, they can be considered to have the feature [ + process] or [ +durative] in the construction under discussion. Thus, the following examples are all perfectly normal sentences: (103) a. To ga ak-i-kaketa toki ni dareka ga mata sore door SM open when at someone SM again that o simeta. OM closed "When the door began to open, someone closed it again." b. Byooki illness

ga naor-i-kaketa toki ni taiin-saserareta. SM heal when at discharged from the hospital "When (I) began to get better, (I) was discharged from the hospital."

c. Nihongo ga yatto wakar-i-kaketa toki gakkiga owatta. Japanese SM finally understand when term SM ended "The term ended when (I) finally began to undertand Japanese." In the above examples, the verbs all have the feature of [+process]. If necessary, they can co-occur with the process adverb dandan, "gradually." There are other punctual verbs which may have to be treated as if they were process verbs, although they are clearly different from the verbs in (103). For example, the verbs sinu, "to die," hairu, "to enter," or tomaru, "to stop," are normally understood as non-process punctual verbs and, as such, irrelevant to the ingressive and inceptive aspects; they do not co-occur with the process adverb dandan, either. Yet they are relevant to the attenuative construction. Some examples follow: (104) a. Sono byooki de

that illness

kare wa sin-i-kaketa ga

with he

TM die

kono

but this

190

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

kusuri de tasukatta. medicine was saved

"Of that illness, he almost died, but with this medicine, he was saved./He was about to die of that illness, but he was saved with this medicine." b. Watakusi ga hey a ni hair-i-kaketa toki ni denwa

I

SM room in enter

when at telephone

ga atta. SM was

"When I was about to enter the room, there was a phone call." c. Kuruma ga tomar-i-kaketa toki basu ni butukatta. car SM stop when bus with collided

"When the car was about to stop, (it) collided with the bus." The situations described by the example sentences in (104) are those immediately before the expressed events occurred.33 They must be understood differently from what the sentences in (103) describe, in which the situations are those immediately after the described events started. Therefore, for (103) a degree adverb sukosi, "a little," may even co-occur, but the English phrase "about to" cannot be used in translation. In contrast to them, the sentences in (104) do not allow the co-occurrence of sukosi, although they are amenable to the phrase "about to" for translation. In spite of the difference between the verbs in (103) and (104), it seems probable that each example in (104) still expresses an attenuative situation, in the sense that some kind of process has started with respect to the event described by the verb.34 The 'process' here may be entirely psychological. Thus, the verbs in (104) may be considered to be temporarily [+process] verbs in the particular environment of -kakeru. In this sense, sin-i-kakeru, "about to die," for example, is here considered attenuative because it is possible to interpret the phrase to mean that some kind of process toward death has already started. The verbs describing permanent state seem to be irrelevant to the attenuative aspect, even if some of them have the feature [ + process]. This is semantically consistent with a meaning which must be outside the concepts of time for beginning or ending. Thus, the following examples are all ungrammatical and stative verbs are also irrelevant: (105) a. * Kodomo ga titi-oya ni ni-kaketa toki ni nakunatta. child SM father to resemble when at passed away

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

191

Lit. "When the child began to resemble the father, (the child) passed away." b. * Kare wa bakage-kaketa. he TM be silly Lit. "He began to be silly." c. * Kare wa sono kodomo no ozi ni atar-i-kaketa. he TM that child of uncle to be in relation as Lit. "He began to be in relation to that child as uncle." d. * Kuruma ga ar-i-kaketa toki hikooki ga car SM exist when airplane SM hatumei-sareta was invented Lit. "When the cars began to exist, the airplane was invented." e. * Okane ga takusan ir-i-kaketa. money SM much need Lit. "Money began to be needed." From the examples so far, it can be seen that the attenuative aspect is relevant only to non-stative process verbs that have the feature [ +temporal]. The verb niru is a theoretically non-stative process verb, but since it has [—temporal], it must be excluded from the attenuative construction. As in the case of V-i-hazimeru construction, V-i-kakeru has its morphological intransitive counterpart V-i-kakaru in which the intransitive form must be replaced by the transitive. The transitive form is ambiguous if the verb is self-controllable: it can mean either that the agent went ahead performing the action slightly, or that the event proceeded slightly. It is not ambiguous when the verb is non-self-controllable, when it can only mean that the event proceeded slightly. The kind of underlying structures to express these situations are basically the same as those in (99) and (100).

Summarizing this section, the following points must be recapitulated: i. The V-i-kakeru form refers to the attenuative aspect, indicating that the situation referred to by the verb developed slightly.

192

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

ii. The attenuative aspect is relevant both to self-controllable and nonself-controllable verbs. However, it is relevant to non-stative process verbs with the feature [+ temporal]. iii. It is irrelevant to purely punctual verbs that cannot be interpreted as durative in any environment; it is also irrelevant to stative verbs. iv. The transitive form V-i-kakeru may be ambiguous as against V-ikakaru if the verb is self-controllable. This situation is the same as that for V-i-hazimeru. 4.10.3 Continuative Aspect The continuative aspect in this section is intended to refer to a situation in which an action or event continues or is made to continue by the subject. It is semantically different from the progressive aspect, in that it implies that an action is continued beyond a certain point where it is normally expected to stop, and that the continuative aspect construction as a whole is non-stative, while that of the progressive aspect is stative. The continuative aspect is indicated by the structure V-i-tuzukeru as in yom-i-tuzukeru, "to continue to read." It can have its own progressive form such as yom-i-tuzukete iru, "is continuing to read," in which the aspectual reference is complex. It should be called something like 'continuative progressive aspect.' Because of its semantic characteristic, -tuzukeru cannot co-occur with punctual verbs. Thus, *sin-i-tuzukeru, lit. "to continue to die," *panku-s-ituzukeru, lit. "to continue to get punctured," or *wakar-i-tuzukeru, lit. "to continue to make sense," are all ungrammatical if they are intended to refer to non-repetitive or non-successive situations. However, they may very well be used if they refer to repetition or succession. The continuative aspect is also irrelevant to verbs which refer to permanent or semi-permanent states that are bound to continue for a long time. Thus, it is irrelevant to all the theoretically non-stative verbs that have the feature of [—temporal]; phrases such as *ni-tuzukeru, lit. "to continue to resemble," *sobie-tuzukeru, lit. "continue to tower," or ozi ni atar-i-tuzukeru, lit. "to continue to be an uncle (in relation)," are all impossible. In general, the construction is most natural with non-stative, process, and [+temporal] verbs, although some stative verbs also seem to co-occur in this construction. Thus, phrases such as mie-tuzukeru, "to continue to be visible," kikoetuzukeru, "to continue to be audible," and perhaps a few others, are grammatical. Since those phrases refer to temporary situations that may be terminated in time, they are felt to describe somewhat similar situations as yom-i-tuzukeru, "to continue to read," and other similar phrases. The

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

193

important feature here seems to be [+temporal], and they are different from the verbs that indicate permanent state. The morphologically intransitive counterpart of the V-i-tuzukeru construction is V-i-tuzuku. The transitive V-i-tuzukeru is ambiguous if the verb is self-controllable; this ambiguity is between the meanings of the active continuation of an action by the animate subject and the simple continuation of the event. The explanations for such situations are basically the same as those for V-i-hazimeru. However, it must be noted that if the verb is self-controllable, the intransitive, V-i-tuzuku does not occur, although its transitive form is common. On the other hand, if the verb is non-self-controllable, both the transitive and intransitive forms are normal. These points are shown in the following: (106) a. * Kare wa hon o yom-i-tuzuita. (morphologically he TM book OM read intransitive) Lit. "As for him, reading the book continued." b. Kare wa hon o yom-i-tuzuketa. i. "His reading the book continued." ii. "He continued to read the book."

(morphologically transitive)

c. Ame ga hur-i-tuzuita. rain SM fall "It continued to rain."

(morphologically intransitive)

d. Ame ga hur-i-tuzuketa. "It continued to rain."

(morphologically transitive)

Notice that (106a) is ungrammatical with a human subject and a selfcontrollable verb, but its transitive counterpart (1066) is perfectly grammatical. On the other hand, both (106c) and (106d) with the non-self-controllable verb hum are grammatical. The underlying form of (106c) may be considered similar to (99), but the main verb must be the intransitive tuzuku; (106J) must be derived from (106c). When the complement verb is self-controllable, the underlying form must be similar either to (lOOa), when the main verb must be tuzuku, or to (1006) when it must be tuzukeru. The former generates (106a), which must obligatorily be changed to the transitive form. In effect, therefore, when (1066) has the meaning of (1066-i) it must be derived from (106a). The transitive form with the meaning of (1066-ii) is derived from a structure similar to (1006).

194

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

The intransitive V-i-tuzuku does not occur for stative verbs, either. Notice that they are non-self-controllable: (107) a. * Sono yama ga mie-tuzuita. (morphologically that mountain SM is visible intransitive) Lit. "That mountain continued to be visible." b. Sono yama ga mie-tuzuketa. (morphologically "That mountain continued to be visible." transitive) c. * Sono ongaku ga kikoe-tuzuita. that music SM is audible "That music continued to be audible."

(morphologically intransitive)

d. Sono ongaku ga kikoe-tuzuketa. "That music continued to be audible."

(morphologically transitive)

In the light of the above examples, the condition for the obligatory change of the intransitive to the transitive form must be further modified to include stative verbs. Thus, we may have to say that the intransitive V-i-tuzuku must be changed to the transitive V-i-tuzukeru, just in case the verb is non-stative and non-self-controllable, or stative and temporal. This section can be summarized as follows: i. The continuative aspectual form V-i-tuzukeru is non-stative and expresses the meaning that an action is continued beyond a certain point at which it is normally expected to stop. ii. The form occurs most normally with non-stative process verbs with the feature [+temporal]. However, stative verbs that have the feature [+temporal] may also occur in this structure. iii. V-i-tuzukeru has its morphologically intransitive counterpart V-ituzuku and the ambiguity problem is the same as that for the inceptive form V-i-hazimeru. However, one difference is that when the verb is self-controllable, the intransitive V-i-tuzuku must obligatorily be changed to the transitive V-i-tuzukeru. If the verb is a stative temporal verb, this change must also take place.

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

195

4.10.4 Conclusive Aspect In section (4.8), the form V-te simau was discussed as indicating the meaning of terminative aspect. It was also pointed out that the form involves certain emotive meanings, which are relevant to modality. The conclusive aspect discussed in this section is expressed by the compound form V-iowaru orV-i-oeru, and it has no particular emotive meaning. Unlike the V-te simau form, the conclusive aspect is relevant only to non-stative durative verbs. Semantically, it indicates either that a certain durative action is brought to a conclusion or that a certain durative event comes to an end. Verbs such as aku, "(something) opens," or simaru, "(something) closes," which are felt to be punctual in the environment of -te iru, are irrelevant to the conclusive aspect, although they may be felt to be process verbs in the environment of -te kuru/iku, the ingressive forms. Morphologically, the form V-i-owaru is intransitive, and the form V-i-oeru is transitive. So the relationship between them appears similar to that between V-i-tuzuku and V-i-tuzukeru. However, they are somewhat different in that the morphologically intransitive verb owaru, if it is used as a full verb meaning "to end," can be also used as a transitive verb,35 while the verb tuzuku is never used transitively. Thus, the intransitive form V-i-owaru is used both transitively and intransitively, and, if the subject is animate and the verb is self-controllable, both V-i-owaru and V-i-oera are equally ambiguous. On the other hand, only the V-i-owaru, the morphologically intransitive form, occurs if the subject is inanimate. Observe the following sentences: (108) a. Kare wa sono hon o yom-i-owatta. he TM that book OM read i. "He finished reading that book. (i.e. His reading ended.)" ii. "He finished reading that book. (i.e. He brought his reading to an end.)" b. Kare wa sono hon o yomi-i-oeta. i. "He finished reading that book. (i.e. His reading ended.)" ii. "He finished reading that book. (i.e. He brought his reading to an end.)" c. Kane ga nar-i-owatta. bell SM ring "The bell finished ringing, (i.e. The ringing of the bell ended.)"

196

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

d. * Kane ga nari-i-oeta. Lit. "The bell finished ringing." Notice that the subjects of (108a) and (108*) are animate, but those of (108c) and (lOSd) inanimate. Only (108a?) with a transitive verb is ungrammatical. Both (108a) and (108*) are equally ambiguous between the meanings of the event ending and of the action terminated by the subject. To explain these situations, it seems reasonable to consider that the verb owaru occurs in the underlying structure as either a transitive or an intransitive verb in much the same way as hazimeru in (99) and (100). The verb oeru must be considered to occur only as a transitive main verb in a transitive structure similar to (100*), not as an intransitive verb in a structure similar to (99) or (lOOa). Then the intransitive meaning of oeru, as in (108*-i), must be derived by changing V-i-owaru to V-i-oeru. Thus, in effect, a sentence with the meaning of (108*-i) must be derived from (108a) with the meaning of (108 V-i-oeru when V is selfcontrollable. 4.11

ASPECTUAL ORDER

All the compound verb forms treated in section (4.10) may be used to express further complex aspectual categories. That is, it is possible to add -te

Aspectual Categories in Japanese

197

iru, -te am, -te simau, or -te oku to express resultative, progressive, experiential, sustentive, or terminative aspects relevant to a compound verb. Thus, yom-i-hazimete iru, "has started reading (it)" must be inceptiveresultative; tukur-i-oete am, "has been (left in the state of having the making of it) completed/has been made," is conclusive-resultative; hanas-i-tuzukete iru, "is continuing to talk," is continuous-progressive; and tukur-i-hazimete oku, "to have started in advance to make (it)," must be inceptive-sustentive; and so on. There are semantic and grammatical restrictions, however, and some combinations are impossible. Nevertheless, the examples above show that there is an aspectual order in Japanese which can tentatively be expressed as (109):

(109) Verb + (Aspect1) + (Aspect2) + Tense Rule (109) shows that either Aspectj or Aspect2 may occur, or that neither of them may occur, or that they may both co-exist. Also, since Tense may always be associated with either completive or incompletive aspect (at least in a main sentence), one may want to say that a Japanese verb phrase has at least one aspectual marker. If so, (109) may have to be restricted by a condition such as "Choose at least one aspect." More importantly, however, it must be pointed out that there seems to be a specific aspectual order in Japanese as represented by Aspect/ + Aspect2, and that such an order seems to be normal. To see what the categories of those aspects are with respect to this order, it is necessary to examine combinations which are even more complex. It is noted that -te iru or -te am can be added to -te oku or -te simau to express aspectual combinations such as nom-i-hazimete simatte ita, lit. "had completed the start of drinking (i.e. had started drinking,)" which is inceptive-terminative-resultative, or tukur-i-hazimete oite am, "has been (left) in the state of the making (of it) started in advance," which is inceptive-sustentive-resultative. In view of such complex examples, the aspectual structure in (109) must be amended as in (110):

(110) Verb + (Aspect1)+ (Aspect2) + (Aspect3) + Tense In (110) Aspect j must be represented by the second member of a morphologically complex verb, while both Aspect2 or Aspect3 are syntactically formed. Aspects normally represents either the progressive or resultative aspect when the expressed aspect is multiple. Other aspectual categories represented by -te iru and am such as experiential, existential, perfect progressive, and perfect resultative may also occur as Aspect3 co-ocurring with Aspect j and Aspect 2, although their occurence in multiple combinations seems to be rather rare. Aspect2 is normally represented by -te simau or -te

198

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

oku and possibly by -te kuru/iku. Thus, for example, a sentence such as Abura ga nakunatte kite iru, "Oil has begun to diminish," is a possible sentence which has the aspectual combination of ingressive-resultative (i.e. Verb + Aspect2 + Aspect3 + Tense). Ingressive aspect in combination with Aspectj seems to be rare, although a phrase such as nakunar-i-kakete kite iru, "has begun to deplete," which is attenuative-ingressive-resultative, seems to be possible. The order in (110) must be understood as the generalization for an overwhelming number of cases. There are cases where it may be violated;37 for example, a phrase such as katte ok-i-hazimeta, "began to buy in advance," is possible, which has the aspectual combination of sustentive-inceptive (i.e. Aspect2 + Aspecti + Tense). (Notice that the phrase is different from kai-hazimete oita, "began in advance to buy," which is inceptive-sustentive.) The phrase seems grammatical, although it may be somewhat rare. In order to account for such an example, (110) must be supplemented by (111):

(111) Verb + (Aspect2 )+ (Aspect1) + (Aspect3) + Tense Although (111) seems realistic enough, rule (110) still indicates the preferred order of aspectual categories in Japanese.

5

Concluding Remarks

This concluding chapter will comment on three basic problems, by way of an overview of the previous discussions. The first is whether or not tense exists in Japanese. The discussions of various tensal and aspectual phenomena in the preceding chapters show that this is an obvious problem, but since linguists often disagree on this point, it seems necessary to add one more comment before concluding. The second problem concerns the conspicuous characteristics of Japanese verbs that are particularly relevant to tense and aspect phenomena; these were discussed in Chapter Three. The third is with respect to the interrelationships of aspectual categories. There has been a question concerning the status of Japanese tense; a view is held by some that there might not be tense in Japanese, and that the so-called tense markers -ta and -ru are really completive and incompletive aspect markers. The reason for such a view is at least twofold: one is that in Japanese conversations and narratives, there appears to be no consistency concerning the occurrences of -ta and -ru, which may even occur alternately; the other is that the so-called tense agreement does not exist, and that -ta and -ru are not necessarily tied to the time points of past or non-past, but to the meaning of completion or incompletion. In spite of such an opinion, it is here considered that tense as a deictic category does exist in Japanese. However, there are cases in which the point of view from which the speaker sees events may shift, resulting in the so-called 'historical present.' Depending upon the speaker or writer, the shift of 'deictic point' may be fairly frequent, and perhaps it can be said that the Japanese language may employ such a shift more commonly than, for example, the English language. This phenomenon, however, does not support

200

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

the claim that Japanese has no tense, or the view that the Japanese tense system is irregular. It simply indicates that Japanese is a language in which the shift is freer than in some other languages. Such a shift of viewpoint may be significant in terms of a relative tense system in which the notions of anteriority and posteriority with respect to a reference time point are central. Thus we may say, for the majority of cases, that -ta indicates that a situation is relevant to the past or to anteriority in relation to a certain specific time point, whether it is the speech time or some other time. We may also say that -ru indicates that a situation is relevant to the present or future, or to simultaneity or posteriority in relation to a chosen time point. We must note that we are concerned with time points, regardless of whether or not a shift of viewpoint is involved. Once we accept the existence of such a shift, the idea that Japanese has no tense system will become untenable. It must be added, however, that because of certain co-occurrence restrictions, this generalization is not always applicable, as pointed out in Chapter Two. For example, in the to construction, a past event may have to be referred to by the non-past tense form -ru. Often so-called tense markers may be perceived as only aspectually significant. Apparently, it is perceived that whatever happened in the past must be 'completed,' and whatever happens or will happen has not been 'completed.' Therefore, the distinction between tense and aspect becomes quite unclear. Especially if we admit the existence of a shift of viewpoint, the future completive aspect, which is normally perceived as irrelevant to the past tense, can also be viewed in terms of past tense with respect to the time point to which the deictic point has shifted. Involving the incompletive aspect, a similar situation exists for -ru, as in the case of the historical present. Thus, tense and aspect become even more indistinguishable. However, what is important here is not to determine whether -ta, for example, indicates only tense or only completive aspect, but to bear in mind that tense is concerned with time points while aspect is concerned with the status of events. Therefore, whether we understand -ta and -ru tensally or aspectually actually seems to depend upon the point of view of the speaker or the hearer. It must be mentioned, however, that there is at least one case in which tense is clearly separate from aspect. That is, if the verb is stative, both -ta and -ru may indicate the same incompletive aspect although their tense is surely different. In this sense, it is impossible to maintain that Japanese has aspect but not tense. Rather, we will have to say that Japanese has both tense and aspect, and depending upon the viewpoint of the event or upon the kind of verb, -ta and -ru may be used to indicate one or the other or both. Japanese verbs, like the verbs in any other language, may be grouped into several subclasses. First, they can be either stative or non-stative. Most stative verbs and verb phrases are non-self-controllable. As such, they show

Concluding Remarks

201

characteristics common to non-volitional verbs. Some stative verb phrases, however, such as progressive forms, are self-controllable. The most important characteristic of a stative verb or verb phrase is that it cannot be followed by the progressive formative -te iru. A progressive form such as tabete iru, "is eating," is a stative verb phrase, and cannot be followed by another -te iru. Stative forms in their past tense are neutral regarding completion, although non-stative verbs in their past tense generally indicate completion. Stative verbs refer to states, and non-stative verbs to actions or events. Many of the non-stative verbs are self-controllable, but some are not (e.g. weather verbs). The Japanese stative and non-stative verbs show characteristics very similar to the corresponding categories in other languages. The feature of stativity may sometimes depend upon the environment in which the verbs occur; a lexical item may be stative in one environment, but may very well behave like a non-stative verb in another. In such a case, although the two manifestations may be considered related, they are perhaps better considered as two separate lexical items. Verbs may also be classified into durative and non-durative; durative verbs typically co-occur with adverbs indicating time duration, but nondurative (or punctual) verbs cannot co-occur with such adverbs. Non-stative durative verbs followed by -te iru indicate progressive aspect, while nonstative non-durative verbs followed by -te iru express resultative aspect. In the progressive aspect, the incompletive is considered to underlie in the complement structure, but in the resultative aspect, the completive aspect must underlie. Theoretically, non-stative verbs such as niru, "to resemble," or omodatu, "to be prominent," are considered to be irrelevant to the notion of time; but when they are followed by -te iru, they show characteristics very similar to non-durative verbs, and their -te iru phrases indicate a meaning much like that of a resultative form. They must then be considered 'pseudo-resultative' forms, in which the notion of the completion of the events described by the verbs themselves is only psychologically relevant. Since these verbs are concerned with permanent states, the aspects that are relevant to time are often irrelevant; thus, inceptive or conclusive aspects cannot be formed using them. Verbs may also be seen with respect to the notion of 'process.' Most process verbs are non-stative durative verbs, although some may even be non-durative in certain environments. Some of the theoretically non-stative verbs may also have this feature, but most of them are irrelevant. Aspects have been discussed from the point of view of the developmental stages of actions, events, processes, or states. The discussions were primarily of the forms, meanings, and possible underlying structures of the progressive, resultative, perfect progressive, perfect resultative, experiential, sustentive,

202

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

terminative, ingress!ve, inceptive, attenuative, continuative, and conclusive aspects. These aspectual categories themselves were treated separately from the narrower notion of aspect; that is, of the perfective and the imperfective aspects. However, it is possible to relate them, and in doing so, we can treat aspect from a more integrated point of view. This is possible because some of the aspectual categories in the broader sense must have the perfective aspect in their underlying structure, while others, the imperfective aspect. Even if a verb phrase as a whole is interpreted as 'imperfective,' it is possible that its verb is perfective, as in the case of the resultative aspect. What is really imperfective in such a case, therefore, is the auxiliary verb that occurs as the main verb. It is this auxiliary verb that controls the perfective or imperfective interpretation of a verb phrase if it is composed of verb + auxiliary. On the other hand, if the verb phrase is composed of a compound verb, its second component has the primacy. In general, then, we can say that the aspectual interpretation of a verb phrase, in the narrow sense of the term 'aspect,' is controlled by the final constituent of the phrase, whether it is an auxiliary or a full verb. This points to the fact that aspectual categories are not simple but complex. The following chart shows the relationships between aspectual categories in the broader sense, listed in the left-hand column, and those in the narrow sense, as listed in the other columns. Aspectual Categories Progressive Resultative Perfect Progressive Perfect Resultative Experiential Existential Sustentive Terminative Ingressive Inceptive Attenuative Continuative Conclusive

Verb Imp P Imp P P P/Imp P P P Imp Imp Imp Imp

(Verb)

Awe Imp Imp Imp Imp Imp Imp P P P

P P

Imp P

Verb Phrase Imp Imp Imp Imp Imp Imp P P P P P Imp P

P = Perfective; Imp = Imperfective In the above, all the aspectual categories formed by the auxiliary iru or am are considered imperfective. The continuative aspect is also considered imperfective since its meaning is durative, its developmental stages are

Concluding Remarks

203

analyzable, and its past tense form does not necessarily suggest the completion of the action or event expressed by the verb. The complement verb of the existential aspect may be perfective or imperfective, depending upon what the speaker wants to say, as in mita koto ga am, lit. "there exists the fact that I saw it (i.e. I have seen it)," vs. mini koto ga am, lit. "there exists the fact that I see it (i.e. I see it sometimes)." Because the verbs kuru and iku are perceived to be non-durative, ingressive verb phrases in Japanese are felt to be perfective in spite of the fact that they have a meaning which has something to do with the beginning of a situation. Resultative, experiential, and existential verb phrases are imperfective since their meanings are durative and stative, although their underlying embedded verbs are perfective. Japanese has no overt way to differentiate a perfective form from an imperfective, and the classification in the chart is based entirely upon semantic considerations. However, the chart should suggest the relationships of the perfective and imperfective with other aspectual categories. Apart from the notion of perfective and imperfective aspects, or of completive and incompletive, an inception point must be relevant to the description of the developmental stages of a situation. In general, we must be able to observe a situation from the viewpoint of inception as well as completion. If we take the former point of view, the situation may be dichotomized as pre-inceptive vs. post-inceptive, or unrealized vs. realized, whereas if we take the latter, it will be seen as completive vs. incompletive; the realized aspect must then refer to any stage of a situation after its inception, regardless of whether or not that moment can be pinpointed in reality. Thus the progressive, resultative, experiential, perfect progressive, perfect resultative, and all of the past tense forms, as well as the non-past tense forms of stative verbs, must refer to stages that should be characterized as realized. Therefore, am, "(something) exists," iru, "(someone) exists," iru, "(something) is necessary "yonde iru, "is reading," sinde iru, "is dead," kite iru, "(something came and) is here," and kekkon-site iru, "is married/has been married/has had the experience of marriage," all express such realized situations. On the other hand, kaku, "(someone) will write "yomu, "(someone) will read," or tabenai, "(someone) does/will not eat," must all be interpreted as referring to unrealized situations. The aspectual categories of realized and unrealized, respectively, group together various subcategories, and as such they must be considered as a higher level of category than the progressive, resultative, and other aspects.1 It must also be noted that they are completely different from the perfective and imperfective aspects. Moreover, it will be clear from the above observations that the notion of realized vs. unrealized aspect is entirely separate from that of tense alone. Some realized situations may be expressed by the non-past tense marker -ru as in Okane ga aru, "There is money," or in To ga aku to Tanaka-san ga haitte kita, "When the door opened (aku -

204

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

non-past tense form), Mr. Tanaka came in." They are distinct from the completive and incompletive aspects as well; some realized situations must be associated with the incompletive aspect, as in Yonde iru, "(I) am reading," although all completive situations must be realized. On the other hand, all unrealized situations must be incompletive. They are all intended for expected actions or for actions that will not take place. The dichotomy of realized vs. unrealized seems to be very useful for classifying Japanese aspectual categories. In some cases, it may be more satisfactory than the dichotomy of completive vs. incompletive. For example, we may be able to generalize by saying that -te iru must always follow a verb referring to a realized situation. This generalization may reflect the linguistic intuition of Japanese speakers, who feel that a progressive form such as yonde iru, "is reading," indicates basically the same kind of situation as a resultative form such as kekkon-site iru, "is married;" that is, they both indicate realized situations. Although a further analysis should reveal that, in the former, the embedded verb is incompletive and in the latter, completive, it seems that the notion of realized or unrealized is more essential than that of completion or incompletion for Japanese speakers. The situation here is comparable to a case in which English speakers feel that a sentence such as "He was reading" refers to the same kind of situation as that referred to by "He was arriving." Although the former indicates a realized situation and the latter, an unrealized one, they both refer to incompletive situations. Thus, for English speakers, the notion of incompletion puts those sentences in the same category. A theoretically non-stative verb modfying a noun can be either in the past tense form or in the 'pseudo-resultative' form. The fact that Japanese speakers can identify them as semantically the same must be based not only upon the verb's feature [+permanent], but also upon the 'realized' aspect, that the two forms have in common. There are also rare cases in which the progressive form may be replaced by simply the -ru form of the verb. Thus, we may say, asoko o tobu hikooki, "the plane that flies over there," instead of the more normal form, asoko o tonde iru hikooki, "the plane that is flying over there." In this case, V-ru must be interpreted as indicating the realized situation just as much as V-te iru does. From the point of view of the notion of realized or unrealized events, the following classification of aspects together with their relevant structures seems valid for most of the cases observed above. In the above, the categories of 'incompl. comp. V and 'compl. comp. V must be understood to apply only to verbs, not to verb phrases. Complement verbs with the existential aspect may be either completive or incompletive. In addition, compound aspectual verb forms must be dealt with in terms of whether they are stative or not.

incompl. comp. V = incompletive complement verb. compl. comp. V = completive complement verb. The terms 'simple,' 'complex,' and 'complement verb' are certainly not aspectual categories, but they are necessary for specifying the conditions in which certain categories are supposed to occur.

206

Tense and Aspect in Modern Japanese

In spite of the usefulness of the dichotomy of realized vs. unrealized categories in Japanese, it has some problems. For one thing, the dichotomy is not consistent with objective grammatical forms, as we see in the case of tense markers. Also, the dichotomy may even become somewhat meaningless in certain cases; for example, the imperative form Katta! Katta! "Make a purchase, make a purchase!" is in its past tense form, although the situation expressed by the verb must be unrealized. Apparently here, as in the case of the dichotomy between completive and incompletive, we will have to take the notion of viewpoint shift into consideration. Problematic situations also exist with respect to the past tense form used for expressing reminiscence and recall; in these cases, we must apparently deal with modality. Thus, although the dichotomy of realized vs. unrealized seems to reflect native intuition more correctly in some cases, we must be aware that they do not necessarily solve other problems any more simply. Obviously, this book has not dealt with all the problems associated with tensal and aspectual phenomena in Japanese, and it does not claim that the descriptions so far are even half complete. Probably only the surface of these very complicated problems have been observed. In particular, a more complete description of tense and aspect would have to include a detailed discussion of modality. Nevertheless, the observations in this work may shed new light on some of the problems of Japanese tense and aspect, as well as be useful for understanding tense and aspect in general.

Appendix

0.

INTRODUCTION

There is something wrong with a conversation such as (1). (1) Situation: A teacher explains asks: Teacher: Wakarimasita ka. understood Q Students: * lie, wakarimasen understood

some problem to the students, and Lit. "(You) understood?" desita. Lit. "No, (we) did not not' understand."

Although both the question and the answer in (1) have the -ta form for their final verb, the meaning of the question must be associated with the so-called present perfect tense, but that of the answer, with the past tense. The correct answer to the question should be lie, wakarimasen, which happens to be in the non-past tense form. On the other hand, in a different situation, the question can be interpreted to refer to a past event. In that case, the answer as given in (1) is entirely appropriate. Apparently, the occurrence of -ta and -ru in conversations must conform to certain principles associated with specific situations or with the meaning of a preceding sentence. Aside from conversations, in many Japanese narratives the use of the non-past tense form describing a past event is very common; similar situations exist in English and many other languages. In this section, the environments or circumstances for the occurrences of the -ru and -ta forms in Japanese will be investigated. It will consequently be in two parts: the analysis of conversations and the analysis of narratives. In particular, the former will be concerned with -ta and -ru involving question and answer, and the latter will analyse the so-called 'historical present' in Japanese narratives.

208

Appendix

1. CONVERSATIONS

There have been suggestions that the notion of 'reference time' is unnecessary for Japanese;1 however, it seems to be very useful and perhaps necessary for explaining tense phenomena in Japanese conversations. This is because the -to. form of a non-stative verb in Japanese may represent either the simple past or the present perfect situation, while its negative non-past counterpart refers to the present, the future or the present perfect situation. The negative -ta counterpart, however, refers to a past or past perfect situation. Although a simple present or a simple past situation can be represented only in terms of S and E, as R and E will be simultaneous anyway, a perfect situation must presuppose the existence of 'reference time' R separately from E. The ungrammaticality of conversation (1) stems from the fact that the reference time in the question differs from that in the answer. In terms of Reichenbach's diagrams, the question and the answer as given in (1) may be represented as follows: (2)q: E -R,S A: E,R - S

Q = question, A- answer) In the diagram, it is easy to see that the positions of R in Q and A are different. It is this discrepancy that is wrong with conversation (1), and whenever there is such a discrepancy, the conversation seems to be unacceptable. Some more examples are given in (3) and (4): (3) Situation: A passenger, who arrived at the bus depot at 2:05, asks a clerk: Q: Ni-zi no basu wa moo demisita ka. (E — R,S) two o'clock bus TM already left Q "Has the two o'clock bus left already?" A:

* He, mada demasen desita. no yet left not Lit. "No, it didn't leave yet."

(E,R —S)

(4) Situation: A friend asks me if I got over my cold since I look rather well today: Q: Kaze wa moo naorimasita ka. (E —R,S) cold TM already got over Q "Have you already gotten over your cold?"

Appendix

A:

209

* lie, mada sukkari naotte imasen desita. (E —R —S) no yet completely had recovered Lit. "No, I had not yet gotten over it completely."

As the time relationships given in the parentheses show, the reference time points are different between the questions and the answers. Examples (3) and (4) indicate that even if the supposed event time is the same for the question and the answer, a conversation breaks down if the reference time points are different. If the reference time is made consistent as in (5) and (6), the conversations will be perfectly normal. (5) Q:

A:

(6) Q:

A:

Sono tokimade ni ni-zino basu wa (E —R —S) that time by two o'clock bus TM dete imasita ka. had left Q "By that time had the two o'clock bus already left?" lie, mada dete imasen desita. no yet had left not "No, it had not left as yet."

(E —R —S)

Sono toki made ni kaze wa moo naorimasita ka. (E —R —S) "By that time, had you gotten over your cold?" He, mada naorimasen desita. "No, I had not yet gotten over it completely."

(E —R —S)

Apparently, a principle that can tentatively be stated as (7) must be at work in order for a conversation to be acceptable: (7) In an appropriate conversation, the reference time must be the same for the question and the answer. In view of this, a natural question that follows is concerned with the 'event time.' What will happen if the reference times are the same but the event times are not? Here again, conversations seem to break down, as in the examples in (8): (8) a. Q: Anata wa kinoo madenisono hon you TM yesterday by that book o yomimasita ka. OM read

(E —R —S)

210

Appendix

"Had you read that book by yesterday?" A: * Hai, kinoo yomimasita. yes yesterday read Lit. "Yes, (I) read (it) yesterday." b. Q: Moo wakarimasita ka. already understood Q "Have you understood?" A: * Hai, wakarimasu. yes understand Lit. "Yes, (I) understand." c. Q: Asita made ni simasu ka. tomorrow by do Q "Will (you) do (it) by tomorrow?" A: * Hai, asita simasu. yes Lit. "Yes, (I) will do (it) tomorrow."

(E,R —S)

(E —R,S)

(E,R,S)

(S —E —R)

(S ~E,R)

The example sentences in (8) seem to indicate that for a proper question and answer situation, it is not enough for the question and answer to have the same reference point of time. The supposed event time must also be the same. Thus, (7) may further be modified as (9) which is fairly obvious: (9) For a proper question-and-answer situation, both the event time and the reference time must be the same for the question and the answer.2 This principle presupposes that both the reference time and the event time must be set by the question, and the answer cannot deviate from them. Therefore, in effect, they become the presuppositions for the answer. The violation of such presuppositions produces discrepancies. Further examples are given in (10): (10) a. Q: Kinoo Tokyo ni ikimasita ka. yesterday to went Q "Did you go to Tokyo yesterday?"

(E,R —S)

Appendix

A: * lie, ikimasen. no go not Lit. "No, (I) don't go." b. Q: Asita Tanaka-san ni aimasu ka. tomorrow with meet Q "Will you meet Mr. Tanaka tomorrow?"

211

(E,R,S)/ (E —R,S)

(S —E,R)

A: * lie, asita made ni aimasen. (S —E —R) by Lit. "No, (I) won't meet (him) by tomorrow." c. Q: Tanaka-san wa asita kimasu ka. come "Will Mr. Tanaka come tomorrow?" A: * Hai, kinoo kimasita. yesterday came Lit. "Yes, (he) came yesterday." d. Q: Dare ga asita kimasu ka. who SM "Who will come tomorrow?" A: * Tanaka-san ga kyoo kimasu. today come Lit. "Mr. Tanaka will come today."

(S ~E,R)

(E,R —S)

(S

— E,R)

(S —E,R)

In the above, (10a) is unacceptable since none of the ambiguous interpretations of (10a-/4) matches the time relationship of (10a-Q); example (10&) is bad because of the event time discrepancy; (10-c) is, too, because both the event and the reference time in the answer are different from those in the question; and (lOd) is bad for the same reason as (We}. In spite of the impossibility of the answer violating the presupposed time points of reference and events as set by the question, principle (9) cannot be applied to a conversational situation in which a statement precedes a question. It is observed that in an extended conversational situation, a statement sentence can be followed by a question sentence which has different reference and event time points. This seems to be the case even if the following question is perfectly relevant to the statement that is preceding. In such a

212

Appendix

case, it is considered that the question is free to take a new time viewpoint independent from that of the preceding statement. In a sense, therefore, the question starts a new topic with a new focus on time relations. Observe the examples in (11): (11) a. Ql: Tanaka-san ga imasen ka. Mr. Tanaka SM is Q "Isn't Mr. Tanaka here?"

(E,R,S)

Al: lie, imasen. Moo kaerimasita. (E,R,S) is not already returned (E —R,S) "No, he isn't. He has already gone home." Q2: Nan-zi ni kaerimasita ka. what time returned Q "What time did he go home?"

(E,R —S)

A2: Yo-zi ni kaerimasita. four o'clock "He went home at four o'clock."

(E,R —S)

b. Ql: Kinoo eigo no zyugyoo ga (E,R —S) yesterday English class SM arimasita ka. there was Q "Did we have the English class yesterday?" Al: lie, arimasen desita. no there wasn't "No, we didn't."

(E,R —S)

Q2: Tugi wa, itu arimasu ka. next TM when there is "When will we have it next?"

(S ~E,R)

A2: Raisyuu no getuyoobi ni arimasu. next week Monday "We will have it next Monday."

(S —E,R)

Notice that the time relationships of S, R and E for the second half of (1 la-Al) and for (\la-Q2) are entirely different. The same is also true of (1 ib-Al) and

Appendix

213

(\\b-Q2}. Apparently, the reference and event time points in Q2 are independent of those in Al. There are cases in which the seeming discrepancies of R and E in a question and answer situation are perfectly normal. Thus, they constitute apparent counter-examples to principle (9). However, in such cases the underlying tense may be in accordance with principle (9), and may not prove to be counter-examples after all. Observe the examples in (12). (12) a. Q:

Anata no namae wa nan desita ka. you of name TM what was Q "What was your name?"

A:

Watakusi no namae wa Tanaka desu. I of name TM Tanaka is "My name is Tanaka."

b. Q:

A:

c. Q:

A:

Asita no kaigi wa doko desita ka. tomorrow meeting where was Q "Where was tommorrow's meeting (supposed to be)?

(on the surface: E,R -S)

(E,R,S)

(on the surface: E,R-S)

Waseda Daigaku de desu. univ. at is "It is at Waseda University."

(S,R,E)

Anata wa America-zin desita nee. you TM American was tag "You were an American, weren't you?'

(on the surface: E,R -S)

lie, watakusi wa Canada-zin desu. no I TM Canadian is "No, I am a Canadian."

(S,R,E) )

Notice that the question sentences in (12) all have the -ta form on the surface, suggesting that they are associated with some kind of past tense, and, moreover, that the answers are all in the non-past tense form. However, the -ta forms in (12) are surface forms, brought about by a specific modality that has something to do with the meaning of 'recall' and/or 'politeness.' Since this seems to be the case, the question sentences should not be analyzed as simple sentences in the sense of their non-past counterparts. Although it is not exactly clear, interrogative sentences such as those in (12) may involve the past tense somewhere at some level in the underlying

214

Appendix

structures. However, the higher verbs must be in the non-past tense form. Thus, for example, (\2a-Q) should involve the kind of structures associated with meaning that the speaker once knew the hearer's name, that he should remember it at the time of speech, and that he requests the hearer to tell him the name again. The highest underlying verb of (\2b-Q) is considered to be the verb of request in much the same way as in "I request you to tell m e . . . " It is considered that the next highest verb is also in its non-past tense form; that is, it must be directly associated with (nani) da (ka), "(what) is (it)," although the supposed modality makes the surface form in the past tense. Therefore, as far as the higher verbs of the underlying structure are concerned, the reference and event time points of (\2a-Q) are the same as those of (\2a-A). The same must be true with the other pairs in (12). Thus principle (9) does not seem to be violated at all, and we must note, in particular, that (9) must apply to the underlying forms. It was mentioned previously that a question following a statement may be independent of (9). However, if the question is a request for the repetition of a statement made by another speaker, principle (9) must be maintained as in (13): (13) a. St:

Kinoo Yokohama e ikimasita. yesterday to went "I went to Yokohama yesterday."

(E,R —S)

Q:

E. Doko e ikimasita ka. pardon where Q "Pardon. Where did you go?"

(E,R —S)

b. St:

Oya, Tanaka-san ga iru. Look SM is "Look, Mr. Tanaka is there."

) (E,R,S)

E. Dare ga imasu ka. who SM is Q "Pardon. Who is there?"

)(E,R,S)

Q:

In spite of the example sentences in (13), there are cases in which apparent violation of principle (9) in a statement and question situation is stylistically relevant. It is well known that, with certain restrictions, a stative verb in a relative clause may take either the past tense form or the non-past tense form without changing the meaning when the main verb is in the past tense

Appendix

215

and the events represented by the main and embedded verbs are supposed to be simultaneous. Thus, we say: (14) a. Watakusiwa hare ga oseite iiru\daigaku o hoomon-sita. (itaj I TMhe SM teaching college OM visited "I visited the college where he was teaching." b. Watakusi wa kare ga motte (irulkuruma o tukatta. \ita] I TM he SM owned car OM used "I used the car that he owned." (Lit."... the car he was having.") c. Soko niiiru) hito wa Tanaka-san datta. \ita] there was person TM was "The person who was there was Mr. Tanaka." Apparently, what is happening here in the use of -ru is that a psychological shift of the speech time took place for the embedded verb. (Aspectually, whether -ru is used or -ta is used, the verb phrase is imperfective.) It is considered to have shifted from the present to the past where the reference point of time is, giving a flavour of vividness in the same way as the so-called 'historical present.' Following a statement such as (14a), the question in (15) may be perfectly normal: (15) E. Dare ga oseite liru) daigaku o hoomon-simasita ka. \ita\ pardon who teaching college visited Q "Pardon. Who is teaching at the college you visited?" It is considered that the use of the -ta form in (15) is possible even if -ru is used in (14a). In the same way, the use of the -ru form in (15) is possible even if -ta is used in (14a). The hearer seems to be free to identify himself with the speaker's viewpoint. In this sense, the question sentence of (15) may give a flavour of 'aloofness' if the speech time of 'now' is maintained for the embedded sentence when the corresponding statement of (14a) takes a psychological speech time in the past. Alternatively, if -ru is used in (15) when the corresponding statement of (14a) uses the -ta form, it will be

216

Appendix

interpreted to signify that the hearer has gone out of his way to identify himself with the stated past situation. A somewhat similar situation exists for an imperative sentence with the -ta form and its appropriate response, as in (16): (16) a. Saa, katta! Katta! come on purchase purchase "Come on! Make a purchase! Make a purchase!" (Lit. "Come on! Made a purchase! (i.e. Be in the state of having made a purchase.")) b. Yosi, katta! OK bought "OK. I bought it." The surface verb forms of (16) must be considered somewhat similar to those in (12), in that some kind of modality is definitely involved and the higher underlying verbs must be in the non-past tense. Moreover, at some level of their complex underlying structures, the -ta form must be involved, indicating the completive aspect or the past tense as a result of the psychological shift of the speech time to some point in the future. In the imperative and its response, the reference point of time and psychological speech time are the same. We must also note that the response is entirely appropriate for the kind of imperative shown in (16a), even if the buyer has not made payment for the purchase. It shows the hearer's identification of viewpoint with that of the speaker. Aside from (16&), there is a second type of response possible for (16a). A buyer may say, "Yosi, kau zo!" Notice that this response has the non-past tense form. Compared with (16&) it seems to have a tinge of 'aloofness'; the buyer is not entirely in the psychological world of the vendor. This observation brings us to the following generalization: (17) If the hearer identifies himself with the speaker, the hearer's psychological speech time becomes the same as that of the speaker, bringing about the tense agreement between their utterances. In such a case, the conversation is more meshed. In the light of this, the examples in (12) may be re-examined. Notice that in (12), the answers do not have the same surface reference point of time. This is because of the aloofness of the hearer with respect to the kind of information asked of him. There are cases in which the answer can be in the -ta form, like the questions in (12):

Appendix

(18) Q:

A:

217

Ano hito no namae wa . . . Tanaka Satoru desita ka. that person's name was Q "His name was . . . was it Tanaka Satoru?" A, soo desita nee. ah so was tag "Oh, that was it, wasn't it."

In (18) both the speaker and hearer take the same point of view and in this sense, the hearer identifies himself with the speaker. In this section, it has been observed that for an appropriate question and answer situation, both the reference and event time points must be the same for the question and the answer. However, from a grammatical point of view, those time points must be in the underlying structures. If the surface tense form for the question differs from that for the answer (although the underlying tense might be the same for both, or for a statement and a question in some special grammatical sentence), it will have a stylistic effect of 'aloofness.' On the other hand, if a question following a statement starts a new topic, the tense forms are entirely independent of each other. 2. NARRATIVES

The uses of the -ta and -ru forms in narratives seem to have specific functions related to, but often different from, those in conversations. It is appropriate here to cite three articles that are associated with the analysis of tense and aspect in narratives in general: the first is Paul J. Hopper's "Aspect and Foregrounding in Discourse;" the second, Nessa Wolf son's "The Conversational Historical Present Alternation;" and the third, Noah Brannen's "Time Deixis in Japanese and English Discourse." Hopper distinguishes the actual story line and supportive events in a narrative, and terms the former 'foreground,' and the latter, 'background.' He presents his observations as universal. Among his many penetrating observations, those which appear to be most relevant to Japanese narratives are that 'foreground' states the events in chronological order, making the completion of one event a necessary condition for the next, and that verbs in this category tend to be punctual or perfective. Alternatively, background events are not sequential with respect to foreground events, and tend to amplify or comment on the main narrative events. Therefore, they are concurrent with the main events and tend to be durative, stative, iterative, or imperfective. With respect to the second article, Wolf son's most important observation is that the conversational historical present in a narrative is not used for any

218

Appendix

particular dramatic effect, but rather it sets off a part of the story. She states that when the tense changes from conversational historical present to past, it signifies a dramatic point of an event in the past. Some general reservations notwithstanding, her observation with respect to tense shift at a dramatic point of an event is considered essentially correct. On this point her observation is evidently not very different from that of Hopper. Wolfson's idea on the shift of tense should really be interpreted as a change of focus, so to speak, form the world of story to the real world, or from background to foreground events. It must also be mentioned here that neither Hopper nor Wolfson emphasized the so-called 'vividness' effect of using the non-past tense or the imperfective aspect. Brannen states that the use of what he refers to as 'present' tense in a Japanese narrative is different from that of English in that it is used most importantly to give a sense of 'immediacy.' He further states that this immediacy may be related to the effect of building up suspense or letting the reader identify himself with the author's inner world at the time of the experience. He also points out that the use of 'tenseless' -te forms for predicates in complex structures is prevalent in Japanese narratives. Of course, what Brannen calls 'tenseless' forms will have to be replaced by either -ru or -ta for the purpose of interpretation. The important question to be asked here is, under what circumstances in a narrative the -ta form occurs as against the -ru form, as far as the final predicates of complex sentences are concerned. In spite of the detailed and viable observations made by Brannen on the uniqueness of Japanese narratives, it seems that, excepting those brought about by grammatical requirements, there is very little difference in the uses of past and non-past tenses between Japanese narratives and those of other languages. The present writer's own observations come very close to those of Hopper. That is, in Japanese as in other narratives, the main events tend to be told in the past tense form, and the subsidiary events in the non-past tense form or the incompletive aspectual form. In a Japanese narrative, it is generally the case that the first sentence, or at least one of the first sentences, provides the reference point of time, either by the identification of a specific time point or by a tense form. When the -ru form is used for describing a past event, the reference time point is perceived as simultaneous with the psychological speech time. The psychological speech time is the result of the imaginary 'transportation' of the present to the narrative time. In relation to this psychological speech time, which is now simultaneous with the reference time, the background events may be mentioned by -ru, or rather, they tend to be expressed by -ru. On the other hand, for stating foreground events, the speech time of 'now' seems to be maintained, and therefore, they tend to be expressed by -ta. Brannen's view, which is held to be correct, is that the non-past tense form of the foreground events has the effect of bringing the reader into the inner

Appendix

219

world of the author, and this must be true of narratives in other languages as well as Japanese. When the tense form shifts from -ru to -ta, the reader is suddenly brought back to the real world, so to speak; Wolf son may perceive this as an important turn of events, if she reads a Japanese narrative. The alternation between the -ru and the -to. forms produces the effect of taking the reader back and forth between the author's world and the real world. The alternation, however, is a stylistic matter, not a grammatical one. Therefore, an interesting way of analyzing a story or an author is to investigate how such an alternation is used to obtain an effect of vividness. With the exception of the uses of -ru required by grammatical restrictions, it is quite possible for an author to use only the -ta form regardless of whether an event is 'foreground' or 'background.' Likewise, although it may not be very common, it should be possible to use nothing but the non-past tense form regardless of the types of the events described. In the former case, the story will be perceived only in a matter-of-fact way, while in the latter it will be perceived as if the reader is experiencing the events himself. In this sense, therefore, it seems that proper uses of tense forms constitute an element of the effective specific style of an author or of a story. In what follows, a few passages from the writing of some Japanese authors are cited, in order to demonstrate two of the major points in this section: i. Foreground events tend to be stated in the -ta form, and background events, in the -ru form. ii. For the purpose of 'vividness' effect, even foreground events may sequentially be stated in the -ru form. Since the tense shift in a narrative for stylistic effect is most crucial with respect to the main verbs, the analysis will concentrate on the main verbs of full sentences or of co-ordinate sentences. Sample 1 Kamaba kara dete kita Kizaemon wa, ensaki ni kosi o orosite tukareta karada o yasumeta.' Hi wa moo nisi no yama ni hairoo to site iru.2 Huto miageru to, niwa no kaki no ki ni wa, suzunari ni natta mi ga yuuhi o abite kagayaite iru.3 Kizaemon wa amari no utukusisa ni uttori to mitorete ita4 ga, yagate, "Aa, kirei da. Ano iro o dooka-site dasitai mono da, " to hitorigoto o ii-nagara, mata kamaba no hoo e hikikaesita.5 Itumo sizen no iro ni akogarete ita kare wa, me no sameru yoo na kaki no iro no utukusisa o mite, moo ite mo tatte mo irarenaku natta no de am.6 Kizaemon wa sono hi kara akairo no yakituke ni nettyuu-sita.1 (Naganuma, Naoe. Hyoozyun

220

Appendix

Nihongo Tokuhon [ The Standard Japanese Reader], Kaitakusha, 1960, Vol. 3, p. 57.)3 Kizaemon, who came out of the kiln, sat down on the porch and rested1 his tired body. The sun is2 already about to set in the west. When he looks up inadvertently to the persimmon tree in the yard, the fruit in clusters is shining3 in the setting sun. Because of its excessive beauty, Kizaemon was gazing4 upon it in rapture, but after a while, saying, "How I wish to produce that beautiful color," he went back5 to the kiln. The fact is6 that he always adored natural beauty, and at the sight of the dazzling color of persimmons he could not contain "himself. From that day on, he gave himself to the baking of that red color.4 In sample passage (1), the main and subsidiary events may be analyzed as follows: 1 4 5 7

Main Events yasumeta mitorete ita hikikaesita nettyuu-sita

Subsidiary Events 2 site iru 3 kagayaite iru 6 no de am

Notice that all the main events described in the final predicates are given in the -ta form, and the subsidiary events, in the -ru form; the subsidiary events also describe the background situations or explain the circumstances of the main events. Sample 2 Hi ga kurehateta koro, hitori no ryoosi no wakamono ga, te ni wa ookina hirame v burasagete, mura kara toodai e mukau nobori-ippoo no yamamiti o isoide ita.1 Issakunen sinseityuugaku o deta bakari da kara mada zyuuhati de am.2 Setake wa takaku, karada-tuki mo rippa de, kao-dati no osanasa dake ga sono nenrei ni kannate iru.3 Kore izyoo hiyake-siyoo no nai hada to, kono sima no hito-tati no tokusyoku o nasu katati no yoi hana to, hibiwareta kutibiru o motte iru.* Kurome-gati na me wayoku sunde ita5 ga, sore wa umi o syokuba to sum mono no umi kara no tamamono de, kessite titeki na sumi-kata de wa nakatta.6 Kare no gakkoo ni okeru seiseki wa hidoku warukatta no de aru.1 Kyoo-iti-niti no ryoo no sigoto-gi no mama, sinda titioya no katami no zubon to somatu na zyanpaa o mi ni tukete iru.* Wakamono wa sude ni sinkan to site iru syoogakkoo no kootei o nuke,

Appendix

221

suisya no katawara no saka o nobotta.9 (Mishima, Yukio. "Siosai," in Nihon-Bungaku-Zensyuu, Chikuma-Shoboo, 1958, Vol. 83, pp. 312-13.) At about the time when the day had come to an end, a young fisherman, with a big halibut dangling from his hand, was hurrying1 up the ascending mountain road from the village to the light house. Since he finished junior high school only two years ago, he is eighteen2 years old. With tall height and strong body, only his immature face suits3 his age. He has4 skin that cannot be sunburnt any more, a well shaped nose that is characteristic of the people on this island, and lips that are cracked. The dark eyes were clear,5 but they were gifts from the sea to those who work at sea, and they were hardly6 intellectual. The fact is7 that his grades at school were very bad. With his fishing clothes of the day, he is wearing8 a shabby jacket and trousers that were the mementoes of his dead father. The young man already passed through the playground of the elementary school that had become quiet, and climbed9 the slope by the water mill. Sample passage (2) may be analyzed as follows: Main Events 1 Isolde ita 9 nobotta

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Subsidiary Events zyuu-hati de aru kanatte iru motte iru sunde ita de wa nakatta no de aru tukete iru

Notice that the main events in this passage are interpreted as only two, and all other events as subsidiary, describing the background situations. Predicates 5 and 6 , which indicate subsidiary events, are in the -ta form; however, the majority of the subsidiary events are in the -ru form. Sample 3 . . . Singo wa tikara-ippai, hidari-te ni sakura no takami e mukete, sono semi o nageta.1 Tegotae ga nakatta.2 Amado ni tukamatte, sakura no ki no hoo o mite ita.3 Semi ga tomatta no ka, tomaranakatta no ka wakaranai.4 Tuki no yo ga hukaiyoo ni omowareru.* Hukasa ga yokomuke ni tooku e kanzirareru no da.6 Hatigatu no tooka mae da1 ga, musiga naite iru.s Ki no ha kara ki no ha eyotuyu no otiru rasii oto mo kikoeru.9 Soosite, huto Singo

222

Appendix

ni yama no oto ga kikoeta.10 Kaze wa nai.n Tuki wa mangetu ni tikaku akarui12 ga, simeppoi yaki de, oyama no ue o egaku kigi no rinkaku wa boyakete iru.13 Sikasi kaze ni ugoite wa inai.14 Singo no iru rooka no sita no sida no ha mo ugoite inai.15 Kamakura no iwayuru yato no oku de, nami ga kikoeru yoru mo am kara, Singo wa umi no oto ka to utagatta*6 ga, yahari yama no oto datta.11 (Kawabata, Yasunari. "Yama no Oto," in NihonBungaku Zensyuu, Kawabe Shoboo, Vol. 18, p. 158.) With all his strength, Singo threw1 the cicada toward the top of the cherry tree on the left. There was no2 effect. Holding onto the storm door, he was looking3 toward the cherry tree. Whether the cicada perched on the tree or not is not clear.4 The moon night feels5 deep. It is6 that the depth is felt sideways from very far away. It is7 ten days before August, but insects are chirping.8 Also, sounds that night dew drops apparently make as they drop from leaves to leaves can be heard.9 Suddenly, Singo heard10 the sound of the mountain. There is11 no wind. The moon is almost full and is bright,12 but because of the night haze, the outline of trees that delineates the top of the mountain is vague.13 However, the wind is not moving.14 The fern leaves are not moving15 either beneath the hallway where Singo is. Since there are evenings when one can hear waves from the depth of the ferry, Singo suspected16 the sound to be that of the sea, but it was17 the sound of the mountain after all. In sample (3), the tendency is much the same as in sample (2): 1 3 10 16 17

Main Events nageta mite ita kikoeta utagatta oto datta

2 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 15

Subsidiary Events nakatta wakaranai omowareru no da mae da naite iru kikoeru nai akurui boyakete iru ugoite wa inai ugoite inai

Notice that event 2 nakatta is in the -ta form, but the majority of subsidiary events are in the -ru form.

Appendixx

223

Sample 4 Hirota-san wa hige no sita kara ha o dasite waratta.1 Wariai ni kirei na ha o motte iru.2 Sansiroo wa sono toki kyuu ni natukasii kokoro-moti ga sita.3 Keredomo sono natukasisa wa Mineko o hanarete iru.4 Nonomiya o hanarete iru.5 Sansiroo no ganzen no rigai ni wa tyoozetu-sita natukasisa de atta.6 Sansiroo wa korede, Nonomiya nado no koto o kiku no ga hazukasii ki ga si-dasite, situmon o yamete simatta.7 (Natsume, Sooseki. "Sansiroo," in Natsume Sooseku Syuu, Shuuei-sha, 1966, p. 291.) Mr. Hirota smiled1 showing his teeth beneath his mustache. He has2 rather beautiful teeth. At that point, Sansiroo suddenly felt3 longing. That feeling of longing is separate4 from Mineko. It is apart5 from Nonomiya also. It was6 a longing separate from the immediate interest. With that, beginning to feel ashamed of asking about Nonomiya, Sansiroo stopped7 asking questions. Sample (4) may be analyzed as follows: Main Events 1 waratta 3 sita 7 yamete simatta

2 4 5 6

Subsidiary Events motte iru hanarete iru hanarete iru de atta

Subsidiary event 6 is in the -ta form. However, it seems that even if the author had used -ru for 6, it would have been acceptable. Sample 5 Hazime wa ryoohoo no me ga kasunde mono ga mienaku naru.l Yagate kurai naka no itten nipa-tto hi ga tenzerareru.2 Sono hi ga sidai ni ookiku natte, uti ni hito ga ugoite iru yoo na kokoromoti ga suru.3 Tugi ni sore ga dandan akaruku natte tyoodo soogankyoo no do o awaseru yoo ni hanzen to me ni eizite kuru.4 Tugi ni sono kesiki ga dandan akaruku natte empoo kara tikazuite kuru.^ Ki ga tuite mini to mannaka ni wakai onna ga suwatte iru.6 Migi no hasi ni wa otoko ga tatte iru yoo da.1 Ryoohoo tomo doko ka de mita yoo da na to kangaeru uti matataku ma ni zutto tikazuite yo kara go-rokken saki de hata to tomaru.* (Natsume, Sooseki. "Rondon-too," in Natsume Sooseki Syuu, Shuuei-sha, 1966, p. 379.)

224

Appendix

At first, both eyes get blurred and things get' invisible. Shortly, a light is kindled2 at a point in the darkness. That light becomes gradually bigger, and it gives the feeling3 that man is moving inside. Then it becomes gradually brighter and, as if binoculars getting focused, it becomes visible4 clearly. Then its scene gradually becomes closer5 from afar. I notice a woman sitting6 in the center. At the rightmost end, a man seems7 to be standing. While I am thinking that I have seen them both somewhere before, they move very close to me in no time, and stop8 about ten or twelve yards away from me. Sample (5) may be analyzed as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 8

Main Events naru tenzerareru sum eizite kuru tikazuite kuru tomaru

Subsidiary Events 6 suwatte iru 7 yoo da

In "Rondon-too, " Sooseki uses the great majority of the verbs in the nonpast tense form, describing not only subsidiary but also main events. In sample (5) we see that all the events are in the -ru form, which appears contrary to all other sample passages cited above. Reading a passage such as (5), a reader is bound to be brought into the world of the story, but what is most revealing from the viewpoint of tense in the story as a whole is what Sooseki says toward the end: "Kono hen (i.e. J$ ) wa zizitu rasiku kakinagasite aru ga, zitu no tokoro kahan soozoo-teki no monzi de aru kara, miru hito wa sono kokoro de yomaren koto o kiboo-suru . . .." (p. 380) ("This book has been written as if (the story) were factual, but, in fact, it is mostly imaginary. Therefore, I hope that the readers will keep this in mind when they read it . . .") Apparently, Sooseki used the -ru form as much as possible in order to make its impact vivid. The first four samples were randomly selected. Since the data are rather small, statistics are not given, but they clearly show the tendency for foreground events to be stated in the -ta form, and background events in the -ru form.5 In addition, sample 5 shows that even the main events may be stated by -ru if the author wants to bring the readers right into the world of fantasy. In the above, it is attempted to show that, in narrative, the use of Japanese past and non-past tense forms conforms to a general tendency of tense and aspectual phenomena that may be considered universal, as proposed by Hopper.

Notes

CHAPTER 1 1. A 'verb' here is intended to cover also the categories of the copula and adjectives. 2. This concept is borrowed from Reichenbach (1947), p. 288. 3. Ibid.,p.297. 4. For a more detailed discussion on the subordinate divisions of time, see Jespersen (1924), pp. 263-65. 5. See Lyons (1977), 2: 689. 6. Reichenbach, p. 290. 7. The order and numbering of the diagrams are mine. 8. Reichenbach, p. 297. 9. The interpretation of 'perfect, extended' as represented in (If), (Ik), and (7/) is at least one of the possible interpretations. There is another interpretation in which the diagram may be more like

E

R

as far as E and R are concerned. Also, some native speakers interpret it more like (d-ii), (e-ii), or (/-ii). 10. 'Perfect' and 'extended' are not exactly 'tense.' However, since they are discussed within the topic of tense by Reichenbach, I will proceed with the discussion, including them in the category of tense for the time being. Also in relation to (8), see Smith (1978, p. 44). 11 Reichenbach, p. 297-98. 12. Ibid., p. 297. 13. It is possible that some language may lack a relative tense system. In such a case, R is not necessary; then tense will depend upon E and 5. 14. Reichenbach, pp. 293-96. 15. Example sentences (ll/) and (III) are given in embedded sentences since the occurrence of a stative verb phrase such as -te iru in reference to the future seems more normal in an em-

bedded sentence than in a main sentence. 16. This terminology is derived from Fujii (1976). 17. In (Hi) and (11/), the verb iru is the tensed final verb of the embedded sentence that must be considered relevant to the present discussion. 18. It has been proposed that in representing the Japanese tense system, the notion of R, reference time, is not necessary. (See Ota, 1971.) In the light of the fact that there is no formal difference between perfect forms with the meaning of 'completion' and simple past tense forms in Japanese, such a claim has validity. However, S,E, and R are all necessary even in Japanese in order to explain a sentence such as (ll/) or (lie). 19. Huddleston (1969) argues that "will," "be going to," etc. should not be considered future tense markers. Langacker (1978) goes even beyond and argues that English does not have a past tense marker, but aspect marker. I maintain, however, that English has a past tense marker, although it may often be confused with the completive aspect. 20. In actual use, "will" can refer to the present. In such a case, the meaning is definitely that of probability. For example, native speakers will accept a sentence such as "He will be in Tokyo by now." Also, some native speakers will accept "He will be right in saying so" as synonymous with "He may be right in saying so" in some cases. 21. The past and non-past tense markers of Japanese adjectives are -katta and -/, respectively. They must be considered, however, markers to be attached to the existential verb aru, "exist." Thus, akakatta, "was red," should be analyzed as

226

Notes aka + ku (adverbial formative) red + ar + ta. exist past

22. Cases such as the historical present must be dealt with as special, since they involve specific rules and contexts beyond the range of single sentences. 23. The distinctive categories of tense may not necessarily be on the basis of 'directionality' of time flow as implicit in the diagrams presented so far. Categories such as 'proximate' vs. 'remote' may be considered, as Lyons (1969, p. 305-6) points out. The former can be associated with present; the latter, with past and future. These categories have certain validity even in English since both past and future may be referred to by the time adverb 'then.' In this study, however, the directionality of time flow is assumed. 24. Notionally, stative verbs may be characterized as non-action verbs. See Chapter III for a more detailed discussion. 25. Wolf son (1979) gives an illuminating account of conversational historical present in English. 26. This is the opening passage of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's Rashoomon. 27. It is true that the use of the non-past tense form in reference to a past event in a story contributes to vividness. However, it does not seem that any verb in a story can be so used just for the sake of vividness. It is not exactly clear what kind of past event is expressed by the -ru form, and what kind, by the -ta form. One hypothesis that can be examined is that the main events of the story are expressed by the -ta form and the subsidiary events, by the -ru form. Yet this needs verification. On the other hand, just because the viewpoint shift in a story is rather free in Japanese, it does not follow that a Japanese narrative does not have tense. For further discussion on tense in Japanese narratives, see the appendix. Also, see Miller (1975). 28. When tense is 'simple,' the relationship between R and E can be identified as that between S and E. Thus, in a sense, E is viewed directly in relation to S. 29. In Kindaichi (1976), pp. 5-26. 30. Ibid., pp. 27-61. 31. See Nakau (1976), for example. 32. In many traditional grammars, the past

tense marker -ta is treated as an auxiliary for kako, "past," or kanryoo, "perfect." See Tokieda (1955), p. 198, for example. 33. See Kindaichi (1955), and Takahashi (1976). 34. Those definitions in (21) are given in Forsyth (1970), pp. 2-6. 35. An explanation similar to (210 is given in Miller (1975), for Japanese. He says that rather than tense, what the written language of Modern Japanese fiction has is "much closer to what in other languages is usually called aspect . . . Aspect is a grammatical term that is generally reserved for the verb systems of languages in which the different forms of the verb are concerned not with when something was done, but how, particularly and typically (e.g. the Slavic languages) with whether or not a given action was or is completed (over and done with) or was or is still continuing (not over and done with, uncompleted or incomplete.)" 36. An explanation similar to (21ii) is given by Friedrich (1974), as "Aspect . . . signifies the relative duration or punctuality along a time line that may inhere in words or constructions." Sapir (1921, p. 108) gives a similar view saying, "[Aspect] indicates the lapse of action, its nature from the standpoint of continuity." 37. Forsyth mentions that definition (21iii) was originally given in Academy Grammar. This definition seems to fit well with Curme's (1935) dichotomy of 'terminate' vs. 'progressive' aspect. 38. Forsyth, pp. 9 and 11. 39. Curme's view (p. 232) is of interest in this connection. He says,"... we must almost always indicate whether the act is thought of as a whole, a fact, or, on the other hand, as going on, as continuing." 40. It is interesting to note that "have + V-ed" has traditionally been dealt with within the category of tense although in actuality it has been analyzed in terms of aspect. Therefore, we often see a statement of the following kind: "The PERFECT TENSE usually denotes an action that falls within the time-sphere of the present. Its uses are mainly three: (a) the CONTINUATIVE PERFECT; (b) the RESULTATIVE PERFECT; (c) the PERFECT OF EXPERIENCE." (R.W. Zandvoort, 1960, p. 61). "Another function of the perfect is that of representing an action

Notes or state as continuing from a point of time in the past to the moment of speaking or writing." (Poutsma, 1926, p. 212). On the other hand, Comrie (1976, p. 52) states, " . . . given the traditional terminology in which the perfect is listed as an aspect, it seems most convenient to deal with the perfect in a book on aspect, while bearing in mind continually that it is an aspect in a rather different sense from the other aspects treated so far." Apparently, Comrie considers perfect within the category of aspect, although it is a different kind of aspect from the perfective and the imperfective. 41. McCawley (1971) in Fillmore and Langendoen, pp.97-114. 42. Terms such as 'stative,' 'universal,' 'existential,' and 'hot news' applied to the meanings of perfect are McCawley's. His example sentences are: (a) I can't come to your party tonight—I've caught the flu (stative); (b) I've known Max since 1960 (universal); (c) I have read Principia Mathematica five times (existential); (d) Malcolm X has just been assassinated (hot news). His term 'stative' may be equated to what traditional grammarians call 'resultative perfect,' and his 'universal,' to their 'continuous perfect.' Also, 'existential' is equivalent to their 'experiential perfect.' See Kruisinga (1931), pp. 388403, and Zandvoort, pp.60-61, for examples. 43. The order of completive + post-completive reflects a time axis in which completion must precede post-completion. The order is not associated with the word order in a sentence. In representing a complex aspect we must assume the matter of 'primacy.' In the discussion above, the following aspect is given primacy over the preceding aspect, and Pf. + Impf. became Imp/. In fact, however, depending upon the language, we might be able to represent such an order tied to the actual word order and 'primacy' may become a matter of typology. 44. The completive aspect in Japanese indicated by -ta has frequently been associated with the perfective. See Nakau, for example.) In fact, this may be rather natural. In this connection, Comrie's statement is illuminating. He says, " . . . an explicit perfective, distinct from the imperfective, is most common in the past tense, and least

227

common in the present tense." (Comrie, p. 73.) 45. Porzig (1927) defined "Aktionsart" as "die Art, wie eine Handlung oder eln Vorgang verlduft . . . " Although the term 'Aktionsart' is not universally used, I am primarily concerned with its semantic subcategories. For examples of such subcategories, see Poutsma (1926), p. 290. Also, citing Deutschbein, Ota aptly lists ingressive, progressive, egressive, result, single, repeated, frequent, intentional, and intensive modes of action as the subcategories of "aktionsart." In the present study, I exclude the last two kinds of categories from consideration. See Ota (1963, p. 104). (I have been unable to obtain Deutschbein's book, Grammatik der englischen Sprache [Heidelberg: Quelle and Meyer, 1953].) 46. The above statement is contrary to a grammatical characterization that indicates aspect as 'optional.' Aspect has often been considered a subcategory of auxiliary and expressed for the underlying structure by a rule such as Aux > Tense (M) (Aspect). (See Chomsky, 1965, p. 107). On the surface, aspectual markers are not obligatory, and as far as the formal characterization is concerned, the specification is correct. However, semantically it has to be considered obligatory. Such an aspect may be even a semantic feature of a relevant lexical item. Thus, even if there is no formal difference between a mere tense marker and an aspectual marker in some cases, an aspectual difference may require a different kind of adverb. Also, such a difference may be the reason for the ambiguity of a sentence such as Hon o kaite iru, "(He) is writing a book,"/"(He) has written a book," or of a sentence such as He is speaking, "He is speaking (at present)"/"He is scheduled to speak." The aspectual difference here must surely be considered underlying. 47. These diagrams are not exhaustive but intended to indicate the basic difference between tense and aspect. A deeper analysis will show that some of the diagrams need modification. For example, (29a-i) should be interpreted as a complex sentence and needs at least two £"s: one for the event of marriage and the other for the present state. See Chapter IV for further discussion on aspect.

228

Notes

CHAPTER 2 1. The term 'ambiguity' is used in this study in a broad sense. However, it is differentiated from 'vagueness.' For example, a sentence such as Tegami ga kuru si, denpoo mo kuru can only mean "Letters come (regularly), and telegrams come (regularly), too," or "Letters will come, and telegrams will come, too," and we cannot mix the meanings of each conjoined sentence to make four readings. For a 'vague' sentence, such a mixture is possible. For further discussion on 'ambiguity' and 'vagueness,' see Lakoff (1970). 2. A similar tendency exists in English. Martin Joos states as follows: " . . . a status verb cannot have future reference without an explicit time shifter such as WILL or BE GOING TO. With substantially any process verb we can say things like 'Don't worry: he leaves next week'; but 'Don't worry: the baby resembles his father next year' is not English." Joos, (1964), p. 118. 3. In some cases, the am should be considered to have a meaning different from the one given in (2a). In (2a) it has the meaning of 'existence,' but in a sentence such as Asita wa kaigi ga am, "Tomorrow, there will be a meeting," the meaning of 'existence' changes; that is, it is in reference to a 'human activity' that can be controlled by human volition. In this case, the co-occurrence of a future time adverb is perfectly normal. The meaning of am here is very different from the physical existence of an object which is perceived to be outside human volition. Therefore, if aru refers to the existence of something, a sentence such as -Raigetu wa koko ni bara no hana ga aru, "Next month there will be a rose here," as a definitive statement is somewhat strange. For this sentence to become normal, it must be followed by a presumptive modality marker daroo. In short, the aru in 'human activity' that can be volitionally controlled should not be considered an existential verb in the true sense of the word. It has a non-stative characteristic, as can be seen in its co-occurrence with the particle de for locative marker as in Kyoto de kaigi ga aru just like any other non-stative verb for location specification. Thus, we must say that for some verbs whether they are stative or not may depend

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

upon environment, and it is not the case that if a verb is stative once, it is always stative. See Kunihiro (1967), Teramura (1973), and Miura (1974). There are other representative works such as those by Josephs (1972), Kusanagi (1972), Ota (1973), Nakau (1976), which will not be discussed in this chapter. A time relationship in Allen's sense may be understood in terms of the relative tense system. For Allen, there are three types of time-relationship-reference: 'earlier time,' 'same time,' and 'later time.' There are also two types of time-reference: past and present. See Allen (1966), pp. 164-65. Miura's 'earlier than some other event or the moment of speech' may best be equated to 'earlier than the reference time' in Reichenbach's scheme. The same English progressive sentence may be translated back into a Japanese sentence with the verb in the -ta form as in Asoko o Tanaka-san ga kita. The difference between this and (3g) will be made clear later. Kajita's observation of tense in English is of interest here. He mentions that verbs such as "request," or "demand" require the future tense for their embedded verb, as in "I request you to come in at three, when I will not be too busy." The underlying tense of the embedded verb come must be future. This observation is suggestive of the universal nature of command or request forms in relation to tense or aspect. See Kajita (1976), pp. 170-71). Details aside, in essence I assume the following outline structure underlying the Japanese sentences:

The aspect markers -te iru and -te aru are structurally considered as verbs. Aspects such as inceptive, repetitive, completive or incompletive are considered as a feature that is to be assigned to a verb, verb phrase, or sentence depending upon the case. In addition, aspectual features such as progressive and resultative are arrived at by the interactions of main and embedded verb features. For more detailed discussion

Notes on these points, see Chapter IV. 10. This is a passage taken from Akutagawa's Gesakusanmai. 11. The characterization given is primarily tensal. In fact, it may also be possible to interpret (13a) and (136) to imply that, as far as the speaker is concerned, the action referred to by each verb in the examples has not been psychologically completed. If this interpretation is to be represented by a diagram, the following must be proposed:

E..... R,S Notice that in effect the diagram is similar to the one for a progressive sentence in that the line goes over R,S. 12. The ambiguity of (14a) may be comparable to that in a sentence such as "He made money enough to buy a house," in which it does not necessarily mean that he bought a house. 13. Occasionally, however, the non-past tense form sobieru may be used modifying a head noun as in asoko ni sobieru yama, "the mountain towering over there." The phrase is somewhat literary; its grammatical status is marginal. 14. It is not necessarily the case that wakaru must be treated as two different verbs. It is possible also to consider that the difference of the feature compositions of the two cases of wakaru is the result of feature changing or feature selection rules. 15. Notice that in ordinary situations, the replacement of -ta by -ru may result in ungrammaticality as in Kinoo gakkoo e itta, "(I) went to school yesterday," vs. * Kinoo gakkoo e iku, "(I) go to school yesterday." 16. The imperative verb form are here is derived from ar + ro. (i.e. the existential verb + imperative morpheme) 17. One may replace the morpheme X in (34) with the performative structure. However, for my purpose, the replacement is not particularly useful. 18. Ta is associated with the past tense marker, and -ri with some kind of 'connective' morpheme. Historically, it is the connective form of tari or te ari, an auxiliary for indicating completive aspect. In present-day Japanese, the meaning of completive aspect in tari seems to have weakened, al-

229

though it may indicate a realized aspect. 19. Somewhat comparable situations exist in English. For example, there will be no semantic difference between "He drove away heading south" and "He drove away headed south." For such sentences, we may say that one and the same fact is seen from two different perspectives. 20. The translation may also be something like "After (I) arrived in Yokohama, (I) met Mr. Tanaka." 21. Kuno (1973), p. 145, states, "This use of the present tense verbals in relative clauses for referring to past time is limited to | +stative) verbals." His statement is closely associated with the kind of observation made above. 22. Kuno (1973), p. 263, mentions Josephs' observation that a past time adverb cannot co-occur with a verb in the non-past tense form in a relative clause. In general, this seems to be correct. However, (42a) above contradicts this generalization, although it is grammatical to many native speakers I have checked with. The distance between the verb and the adverb must be taken into consideration as mentioned above. 23. Notice that the future time adverb occurs with -ta in the subordinate clause of (43a) and the past time adverb, with -ru in (436). Apparently in this construction, -ru and -ta are only aspectually significant and the 'structural pressure' applicable to (42c) does not apply here. 24. In one interpretation, both -te iru and -te ita refer to the same past situation for (446), for example. However, their meanings may not be identical. Kuno (1973), p. 267, makes the observation due to Josephs (1971) that the semantic difference between -te ita + noun and -te iru + noun is that the former implies that the speaker had noticed for some time the situation described by the verb, whereas, the latter had no such implication. Therefore, he states that a sentence such as Miti de kirei na kimono o kite ita onna no hito nideatta, "On the street, I met a lady who wore a beautiful dress," has low acceptability since "the context rules out the connotation of previous awareness." His observation seems to be correct for many examples. However, there are some problematic cases. For example, -te ita + noun in a sentence as Soko deyasunde iru / ita hito ni kizukanakatta, "(I) didn't notice the

h230

Notes

person who was resting there," cannot contain the meaning of the speaker's awareness. The difference here seems to be the shift of perspective. 25. I owe this observation to Kuno (1973), p. 262. CHAPTER 3 1. See Kuno (1973), pp. 136-50. 2. See Martin (1975), pp. 272-82. 3. Example sentences are taken from Lakoff (1966). 4. It does not follow, however, that the Japanese counterparts of English stative verbs are stative. For example, Kuno (1973), p. 140, correctly states that English know is stative, but its supposed Japanese cpunterpart siru, "to get to know," is non-stative. Another example will be English see, which is stative. Its supposed Japanese counterpart, mini, is non-stative with a meaning much closer to "to look at." Whether a lexical item is perceived to indicate a stative situation or not may partly be language specific. 5. The characterization above is mostly true in Japanese, but Kuno (1973), pp. 53 and 149, states that some adjectives "can act as if they were" non-stative, involving the neutral description and exhaustive listing interpretations of ga as in Sora ga aoi, "The sky is blue." Kuno attributes the ambiguity to "temporary state" of the sky. Differently from Japanese, Lakoff gives many English non-stative adjectives such as "careful," "noisy," "reasonable," etc. 6. Progressive forms such as yonde iru, "is reading," and tabete iru, "is eating" are also stative. However, they are selfcontrollable and as such they are relevant to imperative forms. 7. Inoue (1973) observes that non-self-controllable verbs do not co-occur with the agent as subject. Thus, she regards selfcontrollability as equivalent to agentivity. As Inoue argues, there is a question as to the justification of treating self-controllability as an inherent feature of a verb since it may be perceived as self-controllable in one environment but not in another, and it is more likely that it is not inherent. However, since it is a useful term, it will be used in this study without further discussion as to whether or not the self-controllability feature is inherent or primitive.

8. The causativity possibility for wakaru and iru, although their potential forms are impossible, may point to degree of stativity depending upon how many of those criteria in (3) a lexical item can satisfy. One may also be inclined to propose the assignment of contradictory features such as [ +stative] to a lexical item such as wakaru. One may also propose a feature changing rule. I am inclined to believe that the feature of stativity is 'selected' according to the environment in which the verb occurs. If the selection is different, it will result in a difference of feature composition. Thus, the stative wakaru can actually be considered a different lexical item from the non-stative wakaru, although they are related. 9. There is a possibility that aru in (9a) is non-stative, however, which suggests that stative verbs are not normally used in reference to the future. 10. A similar situation seems to be true in English. English stative verbs do not occur in the construction of "decide to do." Thus, sentences such as "* I decided to seem reliable," "* He decided to want to go," "* He decided to know Japanese," or "* He decided to expect the prize" are all ungrammatical or strange. This situation, however, may fundamentally be associated with the non-self-controllability feature that those stative verbs have. 11. If the head noun is toki as in (18a), the tense replaceability may even be more positive. 12. Occasionally, a potential verb such as yomeru, "can read," may occur in a progressive sentence as in eigo ga yomete iru, " . . . is being able to read English." Perhaps, this is an exceptional case, or yomeru in this case may be functioning as a non-stative verb. Other potential verbs such as taberareru, "can eat," never occur in such a construction. 13. See Martin, p. 273. 14. The -ta form in (20) may not be acceptable to some native speakers. 15. This observation is due to Kindaichi (1976), p. 14. He mentions correctly that honorific forms of o - . . . da applied to stative verbs such as aru, dekiru, etc. refer only to the non-past state. If the past state must be expressed, the copula da must change to datta, the past tense form. However, if the honorification process is

Notes

16. 17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

applied to non-stative durative verbs, it will refer to the past as well as non-past events and actions. The verb wakaru, "to understand," behaves like a non-stative verb with respect to this construction. Thus, o-wakari da may refer to either the past or the non-past situation as in Kinoo o-wakari desu ka, "Did you come to know about it yesterday?" (desu=the formal form of da) or Sugu o-wakari da, "(He) will know soon." Perhaps, the verb wakaru in this construction may better be interpreted as a full-fledged non-stative verb. The same may be true with many other languages. For Russian, for example, see J.E. Miller (1970), p. 490. As mentioned previously, verbs such as niru, "to look alike," omodatu, "to be prominent," etc. are theoretically considered non-stative in this study. They must be excluded from (22viii). Stative forms are typically durative. Thus, progressive, resultative, and pseudo-resultative forms all indicate durative situations. Example (24g) is actually ambiguous. Besides the resultative reading as given in the translation, at least an experiential reading is possible. An experiential reading is also possible for (24c). The meaning of experiential aspect will be discussed later. A durative verb, therefore, refers to a verb for which the feature of durativity is selected in a certain environment. For such a feature selection, there is certainly the matter of normality. It seems that most verbs for which the feature of durativity can be selected may also select the feature of punctuality in certain other environments. Also, many normally punctual verbs may select the feature of durativity in some other environments. However, there are some punctual verbs which must be considered always punctual. Relevant to the matter of feature selection, see Soga (1979). It must be the case that the prospective meaning of "He is reading tomorrow" is the result of viewing the verb "read" as perfective, and so, most likely [ —durative]. The translation may not sound very ungrammatical in English, which may be due to the basic feature composition difference between the Japanese verbs and the English verbs.

231

CHAPTER 4 1. Nakau correctly states that "a whole predicate phrase, rather than a predicate alone, participates in determining a preference among different aspectual interpretations." The present work goes a step further in saying that the subjects are also important. See Nakau, in Shibatani (1976), p. 431. 2. For a noun to be divisible, it is not necessary that it is pluralizeable. Nouns such as mizu, "water," kemuri, "smoke," etc. are mass nouns and refer to divisible objects. 3. This observation is owed to Kuno (1970). 4. It is also possible to interpret (4a) in terms of resultative aspect; thus, the meaning will be something like, "People were out of that building all day long." A resultative interpretation may also be possible for (4b) and (4c), but it seems to need a special context. 5. See Kuno (1970). 6. Kajita's observation that 'repetitivity' should be considered in terms of sentence rather than verb seems to be in line with the observation above. See Kajita, p. 189. 7. Thanks to Kuno (1970) for this observation. The feature [ +final] above may be equivalent to his [ ±destructive]. However, such verbs may not necessarily indicate the meaning of "destruction." Also, it is observed that some intransitive verbs show the same characteristics, which are relevant to the meaning of finality. Therefore, they have been characterized by the feature [±final]. 8. Kuno (1970) has similar kinds of rules to (11). However, the latter are different from Kuno's rules in that they make use of the features of adverbs as much as those of nouns, and intransitive [ + final] verbs are included. 9. In relation to the observation under discussion, W.L. Chafe's claim that a verb is central to a sentence is of interest. He makes this claim by citing the case of tense, saying that if a verb is past, the whole sentence is past. However, on the basis of my observations, nouns and adverbs appear equally important for the purpose of total meaning of a sentence. See Chafe (1970), p. 96. 10. The overlapping parentheses^ ) are intendedtoindicatethatatleastonemustbe chosen.

232

Notes

11. Structures in (14) must be understood as approximations. They are derived from those proposed for English by Kuno (1970), which are as follows:

Structures in (14) specify that the differences between the three progressive forms are due to the differences of the embedded sentences only while the main sentences are the same. Also, Ota's observation (1963, p. 118) that the essential meaning of a progressive form is 'process' is illuminating. Thus, instead of the feature ^progressive] above, it might be possible to enter [+process] for the main verb. Then -te iru with [ — process] may be understood in terms of resultative or experiential aspect. 12. However, there are cases in which the past tense form -ta expressing the completive aspect invariably entails the existence of result. For example, sinda, "(someone) died," must entail that he is dead, which is semantically resultative. The feature [ — repeatable] seems to be relevant to this phenomenon. Since the result does not change permanently, the feature [+ permanent] is also relevant here. 13. The English translation may seem to be acceptable semantically; however, in Japanese the original sentence is strange, since if a person is "stupid," he must be so always. The abnormal nature of (18a), for example, is comparable to a sentence such as "?Mr. Smith was a man yesterday." Also, since those verbs do not occur sentence finally, they are exemplified in embedded sentences. 14. This observation is derived from Yoshikawa. See Kindaichi (1976), p. 254.

15. The term 'experiential' is different from the same term used by Comrie (1976). What he calls 'experiential' might be termed 'existential' in my sense, which will be dealt with toward the end of this section. The term 'experiential' is owed to Fujii's term keiken, "experience." See Fujii. 16. This observation is derived from Kyoko Inoue (1975). 17. There are examples such as Kinoo densya ga kono eki ni tomaranakatta koto ga am, "Yesterday, there was a time when the train did not stop at this station." This example, however, is not counter to the generalization above, since as far as the speaker is concerned, the situation is felt to be remotely past. That is, since yesterday, many trains have stopped here so far. 18. Resultative forms may be associated with McCawley's 'stative' use. 19. See Yoshikawa in Kindaichi (1976), p. 271. 20. In the construction -te oite am, -te am is the main underlying verb. 21. Similar situations seem to exist in English. An expression such as "I've done it again!" may often imply the speaker's regret of what has been done. After all, what has been done may not be undone, and therefore, the meaning of regret may be implied in the expression. On the other hand, it can be interpreted to mean the speaker's pride, in some other context. These implications are determined in relation to the context. 22. In some specified cases, the shift of viewpoint may also take place with respect to the full motion verb kuru. The same is true with English "come," although the shift is much freer in English than in Japanese. When such a shift takes place, it means that the speaker takes the hearer's point of view. In Japanese, the shift often takes place when the relevant sentence is embedded in a quotative, conditional, imperative or interrogative structure. Thus, we may say, watakusi ga anata no tokoro ni kuru to omotte iru n desu ka, "Are you expecting me to come to your place?" Notice in this example, the motion is away from the speaker's place, but the verb kuru is used instead of iku. For more detailed

Notes discussion on the pragmatics of kuru and iku, see Soga (1976). 23. This observation derives from Takahashi (1976-b). 24. The verb phrase sinde kita occurring with an indivisible subject is grammatical if it is interpreted as "(Someone) came back dead." 25. In this and subsequent sections, the relevant morphemes of the compound verb will be hyphenated as in yom-ihazimeta. However, the tense markers and other morphological units will not be explicitly hyphenated, since they are not directly relevant to discussion. The vowel HI between the two verbs (i.e. HI in V\-i-V$ has only a phonological function of connecting a consonant verb (its stem ends in a consonant) to the following verb. In order to show that V\ must be in conjunctive form, the basic form of a compound verb will be written as V\-i-V^. 26. The verb areru is a vowel verb, so the vowel /// of the conjunctive form is deleted. The vowel /// gets deleted if the verb is a vowel verb. 27. Example (96c) may be unacceptable to some native speakers. For example, Shibatani (1973) rejects Taroo wa Ziroo ni ni-hazimeta, "Taro began to become similar to Ziro," as ungrammatical because of the 'violation' of the like subject constraint. To me the sentence is grammatical and there is no 'violation' since the sentence must be derived from the intransitive structure, and the constraint is simply irrelevant to the intransitive structure. See subsequent discussion on the derivation of such a sentence as in (99). 28. See Haig (1974), for example. 29. Derived from Shibatani. 30. A noun phrase (normally the subject noun phrase) of an embedded sentence may be deleted under the identity with a noun phrase in the main sentence. For example, in "I want to go," the underlying structure is considered to be [I want [I go] ]. The underlying subject of "go" gets deleted since it is identical with the subject noun phrase of the main sentence. 31. See Perlmutter (1970) for treatment of the English verb "begin." 32. Thus, a sentence such as Wasurehazimeta, "(Someone) began to forget," has only an intransitive reading with

233

respect to hazimeru. That is, it means that someone's forgetting started. 33. This observation is owed to Kindaichi (1976), p. 51. 34. Also, it may be possible to interpret examples in (104) in terms of 'reverse attenuative' aspect. A more extensive treatment should include constructions such as V-ru tokoro da, V-i-soo da, and possibly, V-i-yoo to site iru in the same category. 35. This observation is derived from Shibatani. 36. Thanks to Shibatani for this observation, but the above is slightly different from his treatment in that he allows the occurrence of oeru in a structure similar to (lOOa). 37. Derived from Kajita in a private conversation. The example phrase used above was also suggested by him. CHAPTER 5 1. In Yamashita there is a short but penetrating discussion on this point. However, he discusses the problem primarily from the point of view of tense. See Yamashita (1979), pp. 34-39. APPENDIX 1. See Ota (1971), for example. 2. Although its application is somewhat different, Kuno's term, "Kamera Anguru no Ikkansei (Consistency of Camera Angle)" fits very well for the kind of principle as (9). In short, "camera angle" must be the same for the question and the answer. See Kuno (1978). 3. Author's and publisher's names are given in Hepburn romanization since such names are largely conventionalized. 4. The tense forms of the relevant verbs in the translation are kept the same as the corresponding verbs in the passage. Therefore, the translation may sometimes not be exactly idiomatic English. Also, since what is at issue is the tense form and the story lines, English equivalents are not given under each word as has been done for each example sentence. 5. Kuno (1981) makes an observation that the functions of 'historical present' are different in Japanese and English. In Japanese, it is used to represent either the

234

Notes

"inner thought" of the main character, or the "scene" observed by the speaker, or the main characters with whom he identifies. In English, however, it either represents the scene that the speaker observed or describes a sequence of actions in first person narratives. Makino (1981) maintains that any single hypothesis cannot capture the entire scope of tense switching phenomena. He statistically presents grammatically and semantically favourable environments in which tense switching occurs. It seems to me that both Kuno and Makino are basically correct. Perhaps, we need both of them, since Makino is concerned about when and where the historical present tends to occur, and Kuno is concerned about what its functions are if and when it occurs. The observations made in this section are closer to what Makino attempted to do,since observation of the semantic tendency of the historical present is the main concern of this section.

Bibliography

Allen, Robert L. (1966). The Verb System of Present-Day American English. The Hague: Mouton & Co. Bedell, G., Kobayashi, E., and Muraki, M. (eds.) (1979). Explorations in Linguistics, Papers in Honor of Kazuko Inoue. Tokyo: Kenkyuusha. Brannen, Noah S. (1979). "Time Deixis in Japanese and English Discourse." In Explorations in Linguistics, ed. G. Bedell, E. Kobayashi and M. Muraki, pp. 37-57. Tokyo: Kenkyuusha. Chafe, Wallace L. (1970). The Meaning and the Structure of Language. The University of Chicago Press. Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Comrie, Bernard (1976). Aspect. Cambridge University Press. Curme, George O. (1935). A Grammar of the English Language: Parts of Speech and Accidence. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co. Fillmore, Charles J. (1966). "Deictic Categories in the Semantics of COME." In Foundations of Language, 2: 219-27. Dordrecht-Holland: D. Reidel Publ. Co. (1972-a). "How to Know Whether You're Coming or Going." In Studies in Descriptive and Applied Linguistics 5: 3-17. Tokyo: International Christian University. (1972-b). "Subjects, Speakers, and Roles." In Semantics of Natural Language, ed. D. Davidson and G. Harman, pp. 1-24. Dordrecht-Holland: D. Reidel Publ. Co. Forsyth, J. (1970). A Grammar of Aspect: Usage and Meaning in the Russian Verb. Cambridge University Press.

236

Bibliography

Friedrich, Paul (1974). "On Aspect Theory and Homeric Aspect." In International} ournal of American Linguistics 40, No. 4, Part 2. Indiana University. Fujii, Tadashi (1976). "Doosi + te iru no Imi (Meaning of Verb + te /rw)." In Nihongo Doosi no Asupekuto (Japanese Verbal Aspect), ed. H. Kindaichi (1976), pp. 97-116. Tokyo: Mugi Shoboo. Haig, John (1974). "A Re-Analysis of the Verb Wakaru" In Papers in Japanese Linguistics 3: 1-18. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. Hopper, Paul J. (1979). "Aspect and Foregrounding in Discourse." In Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 12: Discourse and Syntax. New York: Academic Press, pp. 213-41. Hornstein, Norbert (1977). "Towards a Theory of Tense." In Linguistic Inquiry 8, No. 3: 521-57. Huddleston, Rodney (1969). "Some Observations of Tense and Deixis in English." In Language 45: 777-806. Inoue, Kyoko (1975). "Studies in the Perfect." Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. The University of Michigan. Inoue, Kazuko (1973). "Self-Controllability and Self-Changeability." In Studies in Descriptive and Applied Linguistics, 6: 23-58. Tokyo: International Christian University. (1976). Henkeibunpoo to Nihongo (Transformational Grammar and Japanese Language). Tokyo: Taishuukan. Jesperson, Otto (1924). The Philosophy of Grammar. London: Allen & Unwin. Joos, Martin (1964). The English Verb. The University of Wisconsin Press. Josephs, Lewis S. (1971). "Selected Problems in the Analysis of Embedded Sentences in Japanese." Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. Harvard University. (1972). "Phenomena of Tense and Aspect in Japanese Relative Clauses." In Language 48: 109-33.

Bibliography

237

Kajita, Masuru (1976). Henkei Bunpooriron no Kiseki (Locus of the Theories of Transformational Grammar). Tokyo: Taishuukan. Kindaichi, Haruhiko (1950). "Kokugo Doosi no Iti-Bunrui (A Proposal for Japanese Verb Classification)." In Gengo Kenkyuu (Linguistic Studies) 15: 48-63. Also in Kindaichi (1976), pp. 5-26. (1955). "Nihongo Doosi no Tensu to Asupekuto (Tense and Aspect of Japanese Verbs)." In Nagoya Daigaku Bungaku-bu Kenykuu-Ronsyuu (Collection of Research Papers of Humanities Division, Nagoya University), 10, Bungaku 4: 63-89. (Also in Kindaichi (1976), pp. 27-61). ed. (1976). Nihongo Doosi no Asupekuto (Japanese Verbal Aspect). Tokyo: Mugi Shoboo. Kruisinga, E. (1931). A Handbook of Present-day English, Part II, English Accidence and Syntax 1. Groningen: P. Noordhoff. Kunihiro, Tetsuya (1967). Koozooteki Imiron: Niti-Ei Ryoogo Taisyoo Kenkyuu (Structural Semantics—A Contrastive Study of English and Japanese). Tokyo: Sanseidoo. Kuno, Susumu (1970). "Feature Changing Rules in Semantics." Mathematical Linguistics and Automatic Translation, NSF Report No. 24, pp. 69-90. The Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard University. (1973). The Structure of the Japanese Language. Cambridge & London: The MIT Press. (1978). Danwa no Bunpoo (Grammar of Discourse). Tokyo: Taishuukan. (1981). "Discourse Analysis—The State of the Art." A paper presented at Middlebury Symposium on Japanese Discourse Analysis. Kusanagi, Yutaka (1972). "Time Focus Within the Japanese Tense System." In Papers in Japanese Linguistics, 1: 52-68. Berkeley, University of California. Lakoff, George (1966). "Stative Adjectives and Verbs in English." In Mathematical Linguistics and Automatic Translation, NSF Report No. 17: 1-1-15. The Computation Laboratory, Harvard University.

238

Bibliography

(1970). "A Note on Vagueness and Ambiguity." In Linguistic Inquiry 1, No. 3: 357-59. Lakoff, Robin (1970). "Tense and Its Relations to Participants." In Language 46: 838^9. Langacker, Ronald W. (1978). "The Form and Meaning of the English Auxiliary." In Language 54: 853-82. Lyons, John (1969). Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. (1977). Semantics. Cambridge University Press. Makino, Seiichi (1981). "Tense Switching in Japanese Written Narrative Discourses." In Papers from the Middlebury Symposium on Japanese Discourse Analysis, ed. S. Makino, pp. 125-250. University of Illinois. Martin, Samuel (1975). A Reference Grammar of Japanese. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. McCawley, James D. (1971). "Tense and the Time Reference in English." In Studies in Linguistic Semantics, ed. Charles J. Fillmore and D.T. Langendoen, pp. 97-114. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. Mikami, Akira (1972). Gendai Gohoo Zyosetu (Introduction to PresentDay Phraseology). Tokyo: Kuroshio Shuppan. Miller, J.E. (1970) "Stative Verbs in Russian." In Foundations of Language, 6: 488-504. Dordrecht-Holland: D. Reidel Publ. Co. Miller, Roy A. (1975). "Do the Japanese Know How to Tell Time?" In The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, 10: 1-18. Association of Teachers of Japanese. Miura, Akira (1974). "The V-ru Form vs. the V-ta Form." In Papers in Japanese Linguistics, 3:95-122. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. Nakau, Minoru (1976). "Tense, Aspect, and Modality." In Syntax and Semantics: Japanese Generative Grammar, ed. M. Shibatani, 5: 421-82. New York, San Francisco & London: Academic Press.

Bibliography

239

Ota, Akira (1963). Tense and Aspect of Present-Day American English. Tokyo: Kenkyuusha. (1971). "Comparison of English and Japanese, With Special Reference to Tense and Aspect." In Working Papers in Linguistics 3, No. 4: 121-64. University of Hawaii. (1973). "Tense Correlations in English and Japanese." In Studies in English Linguistics 2: 108-21. Tokyo: Asahi Press. Perlmutter, David M. (1970). "The Two Verbs Begin." In Readings in English Transformational Grammar, ed. R.A. Jacobs and P.S. Rosenbaum, pp. 107-19. Waltham, Massachusetts: Ginn & Co. Porzig, Walter (1927). "Zur Aktionsart indogermanischer Prasensbildungen." In Indogermanische Forschungen 45: 152-67. Poutsma, H. (1926). A Grammar of Late Modern English, Part II, The Parts of Speech, Section II, The Verb and the Particles. Groningen: P. Noordhoff. Reichenbach, Hans (1947). Elements of Symbolic Logic. New York: The Free Press. Sapir, Edward (1921). Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. Schiffrin, Deborah (1981). "Tense Variation in Narrative." In Language 57: 45-62. Shibatani, Masayoshi (1973). "Where Morphology and Syntax Clash: A Case Study in Japanese Aspectual Verbs." In Gengo Kenkyuu (Linguistic Studies) 64: 65-96. Tokyo: Nihon Gengo Gakkai (Japanese Linguistic Society). Smith, Carlota S. (1978). "The Syntax and Interpretation of Temporal Expressions in English." In Linguistics and Philosophy 2: 43-99. Soga, Matsuo (1977). "The Pragmatics of Kuru and Iku." In Papers in Japanese Linguistics 5: 279-306. Los Angeles: The University of Southern California.

240

Bibliography

(1979). "Process and Durativity." In Explorations in Linguistics, ed. G. Bedell, E. Kobayashi, and M. Muraki, pp. 507-16. Tokyo: Kenkyuusha. ——— (1981). "Tense and Aspect in Conversations and Narratives." In Papers from the Middlebury Symposium on Japanese Discourse Analysis, ed. S. Makino, pp. 276-94. University of Illinois. Takahashi, Taro (1976-a). "Nihongo Doosi no Asupekuto Kenkyuu Syoosi (A Short History of the Aspectual Studies of Japanese Verbs)." In Nihongo Doosi no Asupekuto, ed. H. Kindaichi (1976), pp. 329-60.Tokyo: Mugi Shoboo. (1976-b). "Sugata to Mokuromi (Aspect and Mood)." In Nihongo Doosi no Asupekuto, ed. H. Kindaichi (1976), pp. 117-53. Tokyo: Mugi Shoboo. Teramura, Hideo (1971). "7a no Imi to Kinoo—Asupekuto, Tensu, Muudo no Koobunteki Itizuke (Meaning and Function of to—Structural Position of Aspect, Tense, and Mood)." In Gengogaku to Nihongo Mondai (Linguistics and the Problems of Japanese Language), Toki, Z., Sugimoto, T., et al., pp. 24-89. Tokyo: Kuroshio Shuppan. (1975). "Tensu, Asupekuto, Boisu (Tense, Aspect and Voice)." In Nihongo to Nihongo Kyooiku: Bunpoohen (Japanese Language and Its Teaching: Grammar), pp. 119-50. Tokyo: Bunkachoo (Government Agency for Cultural Affairs). Tokieda, Motoki (1950). Nihon Bunpoo Koogohen (Grammar of Colloquial Japanese). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. Trager, George, and Smith, Henry (1951). An Outline of English Structure, Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers, No. 3. Norman, Okla.: Battenburg Press. Vendler, Zeno (1967). Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. Verkuyle, H.J. (1971). On the Compositional Nature of the Aspects. Dordrecht-Holland: D. Reidel Publ. Co. Wolf son, Nessa (1979). "The Conversational Historical Present Alternation." In Language 55: 168-82.

Bibliography

241

Yamashita, Hideo (1979). Nihon no Kotoba to Kokoro: Gengo Hyoogen ni Hisomu Nihonzin no Sinsoo-Sinri (Japanese Language and Japanese Mind: The Deep Japanese Psychology Underlying Linguistic Expressions). Tokyo: Koodansha. Yoshikawa, Taketoki (1976). "Gendai Nihongo Doosi no Asupekuto no Kenkyuu (A Study of Modern Japanese Verb Aspect)." In Nihongo Doosi no Asupekuto, ed. H. Kindaichi (1976), pp. 157-327. Tokyo: Mugi Shoboo. Zandvoort, R.W. (1960). A Handbook of English Grammar. Tokyo: Maruzen.

This page intentionally left blank

Index

Aktionsart, 26, 29 Akutagawa, Ryunosuke: Rashoomon, 16n Gesakusanmai, 47n Allen, Robert L., 39 ambiguity, 36, 38, 143, 144, 153-55, 157-59 anterior, 13, 23 anterior future, 4, 9 anterior non-past, 12, 13-14 anterior past, 4, 8, 13,14 anterior present, 8 anteriority, 48-56 anticipatory, 160 am as non-stative verb, 38n, 92n aspect, 15, 19-35 in compound verbs, 182-206 aspectual categories of phrases and sentences, 26-28, 122n; complex categories, 196-98 aspectual order, 196-98 aspectual subcategories, 26, 33-34, 116-98 attenuative, 116, 187-92 with process verbs, 187-90 with non-process punctual verbs, 189-90 reverse attentuative, 190n background,217 basic tense system, 3-4 beki, 50-51 Brannen, Noah S., 217, 218 Chafe, Wallace L., 126n Chinese, 3 Chomsky, Noam. 29n classical Japanese, 39 completion contrasted with incompletion, 19-20 completive contrasted with incompletive, 15, 16,19-20,22,23,24,25,33,117-18,199-201 complex aspectual categories, 196-98 compound verbs, 182-206 Comrie, Bernard, 21, 23n, 25n, 142n conclusive, 33, 195-96 continuous situation, 120-21 continuative, 192-94 Curme, George O., 21n, 22n -dasu, 182-83 deictic category, 2 destructive, 124n

direct command, 45 divisibility, 121, 125-28 durativity, 28-29,33; in relation to perception and context, 109-11; durative-stative verb, 86; durative verbs, 107-8 emotive implication, 166-70 enumerative: yara, 55; tari, 70 Equi-NP Deletion, 187, 187n event time, 4 extended, 5, 6, 7, 7n, 8, 9, 12 existential, 142n, 147-51 experiential sentences, 12, 13, 108n, 142-48 Fillmore, Charles, 23n final, 124-27 foreground, 217 Forsyth,J.,21,22 Friedrich, PaulJ., 21n Fujii, Tadashi, 12n, 142n future, 3, 7-8, 9, 13-14, 40-42, 65-71 grammatical requirement: for -ru, 48-52, for -ta, 68-71 habitual (or repetitive) actions, 26, 43 Haig, 184n -hazimaru, 185; see inceptive -hazimeru, 182-87, see inceptive historical present, 14n, 15-16, 17, 217-24; see narrative, 46-48 honorification process and stative verbs, 102 Hopper, Paul J., 217, 218, 224 Huddleston, Rodney, 13n imperfective, see perfective inceptive, 23, 24, 26, 28-29, 33, 116,182-87 indirect command or direction, 44-45, 66-68 ingressive, 33, 171-82 Inoue, Kazuko, 89n Inoue, Kyoko, 147n iterativity, 26 Jesperson, Otto, 4n Joos, Martin, 37n Josephs, Lewis S., 38n, 74n, 76n Kajita, Masaru, 44n, 122n, 198n -kakaru, 187-92; see attenuative

244

Index

-kakeru, 187-92; see attenuative kanryoo, 19, 20, 39 kanseiteki, 19 Kindaichi, Haruhiko, 19, 20n, 86,102n, 138n, 165n koto nisuru, 88, 97-98, 105 Kruisinga, E., 23n Kunihiro, Tetsuya, 38, 39, 43, 45, 66 Kuno, Susumu, 73n, 74n, 76n, 77n, 85, 87n, 119n, 122n, 124n, 125n, 129n, 210n, 224n Kusanagi, Yukata, 38n Lakoff, George, 87, 87n Langacker, Ronald W., 13n Langendoen, D.T., 23n lexico-grammatical category, 26 Lyons, John, 4n, 14n, 21 McCawley, James D., 23, 23n, 24, 148 Makino, Seiichi, 224n Martin, Samuel, 86, 100 Mikami, Akira, 20, 21 mi-kanryoo (or hu-kanryoo), 19,20; see kanyroo mi-kanseiteki, 20; see kanseiteki Miller, J.E., 104n Miller, Roy A., 17n, 21n Miura, Akira, 38, 39, 40, 48, 52, 66, 68, 70, 82 modality, 13, 14, 16, 45, 65, 169-70 mood, 15 -nagara, 86, 88,94-96, 107-8 Nakau, Minoru, 19n, 25n, 38n, 118n narrative, 46-48; see historical present natural time, 14 non-past, 12, 13, 14, 36, 40-56 non-stative verbs, 104-15 -oeru, 195-96; see conclusive aspect order of events, 79-84 Ota, Akira, 13n, 26n, 38n, 129n, 208n -owaru, 195-96; see conclusive aspect past, 3,7-8,9,12,13,14,24,36-84; specifically see 58-84 past events expressed by -ru, 46-56, 217-24 perfect, 5,6,7-8,23,26,29; continuative, 23n; resultative, 23n; experience, 23n; stative, 23-24; universal, 23-24; existential, 23-24; hot news, 23-24 perfect progressive, 151-55 perfect resultative, 155-59 perfective (vs. imperfective), 19-33 Perlmutter, David M., 187n permanent, 61, 83, 100, 102, 131n, 133 Porzig, Walter, 26n

posterior, 13 posterior future, 4, 9 posterior non-past, 14 posterior past, 4, 8 posterior present, 9; see anterior post-terminative, 29, 116 Poutsma, H., 23n, 26n pre-inceptive, 29, 33, 116 preparatory, 160; see sustentive present, 3, 7, 9, 14, 40-41 present moment, 2-3; see speech time present tense, 13; see present present situations expressed by -ta, 58-65 pre-terminative, 116 primary tense, 4, 14; see secondary tense process, 111-15, 171, 173-75, 177-82, 184-85 188-90, 201 progressive, 12, 13, 23, 26, 29, 33, 116, 11830; in relation to resultative aspect, 131; in relation to subject or object, 121; successively or repetitively progressive, 119 proximate, 14n pseudo-causative, 91-92 pseudo-resultative,61,100,101,103,117,13233, 204 punctuality, 26,28,33; in relation to perception or context, 109-11 punctual verbs, 107-15, 129-30 realized, 33-34, 59, 70, 71, 82, 83, 117, 203, 204-6 recall, 16, 64-65 reference time, 4 Reichenbach, Hans, 4n, 5,6,7n, 8,9,39n, 57, 208 relative tense system, 4, 39; see basic tense, and secondary tense reminiscing, 46-48 remote, 14n repeatable, 122-30, 131n repetitive, 23, 28, 119, 122-30 resultative, 12, 13, 23, 24, 26, 33, 119, 130-42 -ru, 36-84, 199-200, 207-17, 218-24; present/ future situations, 40-44; indirect command, 44-45; past events, 46-56; narrative and reminiscing, 46-48; grammatical requirement, 48-52; semantic requirement, 53-55; enumerative particle, 55-56; replaceable with -ta, 71-79,99-100,101-4, 199-200 Russian, 21, 22, 23 Sapir, Edward, 21n secondary tense, 14; see relative tense, and basic tense self-controllability, 88-89,200-201; with resul-

Index tative, 137; with ingressive, 171, 176, 17982; with inceptive, 187; with attentuative, 191-92; with continuative, 193-94 semantic requirement: for -ru, 52-56; for -ta, 68-70 Shibatani, Masayoshi, 118n, 184n, 185, 185n, 186,187, 195n, 196n shift, 17, 66, 68, 75-76,199-200 simple, 13; simple future, 6, 7, 9; simple nonpast, 14; simple past, 8; simple present, 8 Smith, CarlotaS.,7n Soga, Matsuo, HOn, 172n soo, 20 speech time, 2-3, psychological speech time, 17 stative verbs, 15,37,38n, 58-64,71-79,87-104, 200-201; their criteria, 87-88; in relation to self-controllability, 88; associated with doo, 103-4 subclassification of verbs, 85-115 successive,119-20,122-30 sugata, 20 super-category, 33, 116-117 sustentive, 33, 159-65 -ta, 36-84, 199-200, 207-17, 218-24; used for past situations, 56-57; used for present situations, 58-65; understood statively, 60-64; used for recall, 64-65; used for future situations,65-71; replaced by -ru, 71-79, 99-100, 100-102, 199-200 tai, 20 Takahashi, Taro, 20n, 173n -te am, 93, 134-42; contrasted with -te oku, 162-65 -teiku, 111-12, 171-82 -te iru, see experiential, progressive, and resultative; interchangeable with -ta, 60-62; interchangeable with -ta and -ru, 78-79 •tekuru, 111-12, 171-82 -te mini, 93

245

-te oku, 93, 159-65; contrasted with -te am, 162-65 -te simau, 266-70, 195 temporal, 132-33, 166; with inceptive, 184; with attentuative, 191; with continuative, 192 tense, 2-19; in complex sentences, 9; in narratives, 16; replaceable cases, 60-62, 71-79, 99-100, 100-102, 199-201 Teramura, Hideo, 38, 39, 43, 66 terminative, 21n, 29,116,166-70; pre-terminative, 116;post-terminative, 116; emotive implication, 166-70 time axis, 3 timeless truth, 40, 42 time-relationship, 39 to, 51-52 Tokieda, Motoki, 19n tumori, 96-97 -tutu am, 110-11, 113-14,189 -tuzukeru, 192-94, 195 -tuzuku, 194, 195 uncompletion; see completive vs. incompletive underlying Japanese sentence structures, 45n unrealized; see realized vividness effect, 218-19 wakaru as stative or non-stative verb, 62n, 89,90,91,92 Wolfson, Nessa, 16n, 47, 217, 218 Yamashita, Hideo, 203n yoosoo, 20 yootai, 20 Yoshikawa, Taketoki, 138n, 165n Zandvoort, R.W., 23n