Integration and Autonomy in Japanese Converb Constructions: A Corpus Study

Abstract

Researchers still have no common opinion on the integration and autonomy of parts of Japanese converb constructions. In this article, morphological and syntactic connectedness in the most common Japanese converb constructions is examined through tests whose results can be verified using corpus data. Results show that parts of all considered converb constructions demonstrate morphological independence (except for contracted colloquial forms). As for the syntax, converb constructions demonstrate both features of autonomy and unity, forming a sort of continuum, which makes it difficult to categorize them and to distinguish syntactic subtypes for each of the constructions. This reminds us that grammaticalization is a constantly ongoing process, and word classes not falling steadily into our classifications require flexible means of description.

Keywords

• Japanese linguistics
• converb constructions
• corpus linguistics
• grammaticalization
• complex predicates