Cover not available
Article published In:
Development of tense and aspect systems
Edited by Jadranka Gvozdanović
[Journal of Historical Linguistics 10:2] 2020
► pp. 289–324

Historical change in the Japanese tense-aspect system

| Tohoku University
Modern Japanese has a formally very simple tense-aspect system, which at its core has only three forms that are complemented by a number of peripheral markers and constructions. The core of the tense-aspect system was much more elaborate and complex in Classical Japanese. This paper discusses the systems of Modern and Classical Japanese, and then sketches the development from the latter to the former. This development involves the grammaticalization from aspect to tense, the recruitment of lexical means and constructions to renew aspectual categories, and category climbing. Two major paths of grammaticalization can be distinguished.
Keywords: grammaticalization, tense, aspect, Japanese, resultative-perfect-past path, progressive-present-future path
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Modern Japanese tense-aspect
    • 2.1 -Te i-
    • 2.2 -Ta
    • 2.3 -(Ur)u
    • 2.4Peripheral forms, aktionsarten and lexical aspect
    • 2.5Some points of discussion
  • 3.Late Old Japanese tense-aspect
    • 3.1Overview
    • 3.2 -keri vs. -ki/si/sika
    • 3.3 -(a)m-
    • 3.4 -(ur)u
    • 3.5Forms ending on -ari vs. -t-/-n-
  • 4.Changes
    • 4.1Change within aspect: -tari (-Ta), -(ur)u
    • 4.2From aspect to tense: -t-, -tari (-Ta)
    • 4.3From tense to modality: -(a)m- (-(y)oo), -tari (-Ta)
    • 4.4Demise of forms: -t/-n-, -ki, -keri, -eri
    • 4.5Emergence of a new aspectual form: -Te i-
  • 5.Generalizations and conclusion
    • 5.1Paths of grammaticalization
    • 5.2Category climbing
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
  • Primary references
Published online: 21 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.18017.nar
References (83)
References
Breban, Tine & Svenja Kranich. 2015. Introduction to What Happens after Grammaticalization? Secondary Grammaticalization and Other Late Stage Pprocesses . Language Sciences 471.129–131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bussmann, Hadumod. 1996. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The Evolution of Grammar. Tense, Aspect and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and Aspect Systems. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Desclés, Jean-Pierre & Zlatka Guentcheva. 2012. Universals and Typology. The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect ed. by Robert I. Binnick, 123–154. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 2003. The Development of the Modals in English: Radical versus Gradual Changes. English Modality in Context: Diachronic Perspectives ed. by David Hart, 17–32. Bern: Lang.Google Scholar
Frellesvig, Bjarke. 2010. A History of the Japanese Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fukushima, Takenobu. 2008. Review of Kinsui, Satoshi: Nihongo sonzai hyōgen no rekishi [A History of Existential Expressions in Japanese]. Nihongo Bunpō 8:2.207–214.Google Scholar
GNB=Gendai Nihongo Bunpō Kenkyūkai 2007: Gendai nihongo bunpō 3 [Modern Japanese Grammar 3]. Tōkyō: Kuroshio Shuppan.Google Scholar
Goto, Taeko. 2001. On the Decline of Tense and Aspect in Japanese: Its Theoretical Implications. Language Change in East Asia ed. by T. E. McAuley, 233–249. Richmond: Curzon.Google Scholar
Guéron, Jacqueline. 2007. On Tense and Aspect. Lingua 1171.367–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gvozdanović, Jadranka. 2012. Perfective and Imperfective Aspect. The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect ed. by Robert I. Binnick, 781–802. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hasselberg, Iris. 1996. Verbalkomposita im Japanischen. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 1997. Cognitive Foundations of Grammar. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hengeveld, Kees. 1989. Layers and Operators in Functional Grammar. Journal of Linguistics 251.127–157. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011. The Grammaticalization of Tense and Aspect. The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization ed. by Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine, 580–594. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hengeveld, Kees & J. Lachlan Mackenzie. 2008. Functional Discourse Grammar. A Typologically-based Theory of Language Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hengeveld, Kees, Heiko Narrog & Hella Olbertz (eds.). 2017. The Grammaticalization of Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. 1991. On Some Principles of Grammaticization Approaches to Grammaticalization (vol. 1) ed. by Elizabeth C. Traugott & Bernd Heine, 17–35. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ijima, Masahiro. 2011. Chūkogo kako, kanryō hyōgen no kenkyū [The study of expressions of past and perfect in Late Old Japanese]. Tōkyō: Hitsuji Shobō.Google Scholar
Kindaichi, Haruhiko (ed.). 1976. Nihongo Dōshi no Asupekuto. Tōkyō: Mugi Shobō.Google Scholar
Kinsui, Satoshi. 1993. Kojiki no tensu asupekuto [Tense-aspect in the Kojiki]. Kokubungaku Kaishaku to Kanshō 71.28–33.Google Scholar
. 2000. Toki. Toki, hitei to toritate [Tense-aspect, negation and information structure] ed. by Satoshi Kinsui, Mayumi Kudō & Yoshiko Numata, 1–92. Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten.Google Scholar
. 2005. Nihongo asupekuto no rekishiteki kenkyū [The historical study of Japanese aspect]. Proceedings of the 6th Nihongo Bunpō Gakkai ed. by Nihongo Bunpō Gakkai, 1–15. Tsukuba.Google Scholar
. 2006a. Nihongo sonzai hyōgen no rekishi [A History of Existential Expressions in Japanese]. Tōkyō: Hitsuji Shobō.Google Scholar
. 2006b. Nihongo asupekuto no rekishiteki kenkyū [The historical study of Japanese aspect]. Nihongo Bunpō 6:2.33–44.Google Scholar
KKK= Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyūjo. 1985: Gendai nihongo dōshi no asupekuto to tensu [Aspect and Tense of Modern Japanese Verbs]. Tōkyō: Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyūjo.Google Scholar
Kondō, Yasuhiro. 2013. Denshika koopasu o mochiita kotengo no tensu asupekuto kenkyū [The study of tense and aspect in Classical Japanese using electronic corpora]. Nihongogaku 32:12.16–29.Google Scholar
Koyanagi, Tomokazu. 2018. Bunpō henka no kenkyū [Research on grammatical change]. Tōkyō: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Kudō, Mayumi. 1995. Asupekuto, Tensu Taikei toTekusuto. Gendai Nihongo no Jikan no Hyōgen [The system of tense-aspect and text. The temporal expressions of Modern Japanese]. Tōkyō: Hitsuji shobō.Google Scholar
. 1996. Hanjijitsusei no hyōgen o megutte [On expressions of counterfactuality]. Journal of the Yokohama National University, Section II, 431.51–65.Google Scholar
. 2004. Gendaigo no tensu, asupekto [Tense and aspect in Modern Japanese]. In Onoe, Keisuke (ed.) Bunpō II [Grammar II], 172–192. Tōkyō: Asakura Shoten.Google Scholar
. 2014. Gendai Nihongo muudo, tensu, asupekuto-ron [Mood, Tense and Aspect Systems in Japanese]. Tōkyō: Hitsuji Shobō.Google Scholar
Kuroda, Tōru. 2006. Man’yōka no dokkai to kodaigo bunpō [The interpretation of Man’yōshū poems and the grammar of Ancient Japanese]. Chiba: Man’yō Shobō.Google Scholar
Lewandowski, Theodor. 1996. Linguistisches Wörterbuch, vol. 11. 6th ed. Heidelberg/Wiesbaden: Quelle und Meyer.Google Scholar
Lewin, Bruno. 1955. Zur Frage der Verbalaspekte im Altjapanischen. Oriens Extremus 2:2. 237–249.Google Scholar
Martin, Samuel E. 1996. On the Finite forms of Old Japanese Verbs. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 51.295–299. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matsumoto, Yo. 1996. Complex Predicates in Japanese. A Syntactic and Semantic Study of the Notion ‘Word’. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Miller, Roy Andrew. 1985. Homonymy, Heteroclysis, and History in the Japanese Verb. Linguistics and Philosophy. Essays in Honor of Rulon S. Wells ed. by Adam Makkai & Alan K. Melby, 393–418. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Nakanishi, Uichi. 1996. Kodaigo Bunpōron. Jodōshihen [Grammatical analysis of Old Japanese. Auxiliaries]. Tōkyō: Izumi Shoin.Google Scholar
Narrog, Heiko. 1999. Japanische Verbflexive und flektierbare Verbalsuffixe. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
. 2010. The Order of Meaningful Elements in the Japanese Verbal Complex. Morphology 20:1.205–237. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Modality, Subjectivity, and Semantic Change: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2016. Exaptation in Japanese and Beyond. Exaptation and Language Change ed. by Norde and Freek Van de Velde, 93–120. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2017. Relationship of Form and Function in Grammaticalization – The Case of Modality. In: Hengeveld, Kees et al. (eds). 2017, pp. 75–110.Google Scholar
Nitta, Yoshio. 2009. Nihongo no bunpō kategorii o megutte [About the categories of Japanese grammar]. Tōkyō: Hitsuji Shobo.Google Scholar
Ōki, Kazuo. 2009. Kodai nihongo dōshi kihonkei no jikanteki imi [The temporal meaning of the basic form of verbs in older Japanese]. Kokugo to Kokubungaku (special edition on tense-aspect in Classical Japanese) 111.21–31.Google Scholar
Okuda, Yasuo. 1985. Kotoba no kenkyū – josetsu [Language research – a preamble]. Tōkyō: Mugi Shobō.Google Scholar
Ono, Tsuyoshi. 1992. The Grammaticization of the Japanese Verbs oku and shimau. Cognitive Linguistics 3–41.367–390. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Onoe, Keisuke. 2001. Bunpō to Imi 1 [Grammar and Meaning 1]. Tōkyō: Kuroshio Shuppan.Google Scholar
Robbeets, Martine. 2015. Diachrony of Verbal Morphology: Japanese and the Transeurasian Languages. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rickmeyer, Jens. 1991. Einführung in das klassische Japanisch anhand der Gedichanthologie Hyakunin isshu. 2nd ed. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar
Rothaug, Petra. 1991. Abriß der japanischen Lautgeschichte. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar
Salkie, Raphael. 2010. Will: Tense or Modal or Both? English Language and Linguistics 14:2.187–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sandness, Karen E. 1999. The Evolution of the Japanese Past and Perfective Suffixes. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Roland. 1968. Zu den Hilfsverben des Tempus und Aspekts im Spätmitteljapanischen. Nachrichten der Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens 1041.21–55.Google Scholar
Shigemi, Kazuyuki. 1999. Jodōshi no kōbun kinō kenkyū [The study of the syntactic functions of auxiliaries]. Tōkyō: Izumi Shoin.Google Scholar
Shirai, Yasuhiro. 1997. On the Primacy of Progressive over Resultative State: The Case of Japanese -teiru* . Japanese/Korean Linguistics (vol. 61) ed. by Ho-min Sohn & John Haig, 512–524. Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Shigeyuki. 1976. Nihongo no dōshi no sugata (asupekuto) ni tsuite [About the aspect of Japanese verbs]. Nihongo Dōshi no Asupekuto ed. by Haruhiko Kindaichi, 63–81. Tōkyō: Mugi Shobō.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Tai. 1993. Jikan hyōgen no hensen [The change of temporal expressions]. Gekkan Gengo 22:2.60–67.Google Scholar
. 1999. Kodai nihongo dōshi no tensu, asupekuto [Tense and aspect of verbs in older Japanese]. 2nd ed. Tōkyō: Hitsuji Shobō.Google Scholar
. 2009. Kodai nihongo jikan hyōgen no keitaironteki kenkyū [Morphological research on temporal expressions in older Japanese]. Tōkyō: Hitsuji Shobō.Google Scholar
. 2012. Gokei taishō koten nihongo no jikan hyōgen [The temporal expressions of Classical Japanese, contrasting forms]. Tōkyō: Kasama Shoin.Google Scholar
Takahashi, Tarō. 2003. Dōshi Kyūshō [Nine chapters on verbs]. Tōkyō: Hitsuji Shobō.Google Scholar
Takayama, Yoshiyuki. 2011. Tensu, asupekuto. Bunpōshi [History of Grammar] ed. by Satoshi Kinsui et al., 34–54. Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten.Google Scholar
Takeuchi, Lone. 1987. A Study of Classical Japanese Tense and Aspect. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
. 1999. The Structure and History of Japanese. From Yamatokotoba to Nihongo. Essex: Longman.Google Scholar
Takeuchi, Shirō. 2014. Jishō no katachi to jōdaigo asupekuto [The form of events and aspect in Old Japanese]. Nihongo Bunpōshi Kenkyū 21.1–20.Google Scholar
Unger, James Marshall. 1975. Studies in Early Japanese Morphophonemics. Doctoral Dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Unger, Marshall. 2000. Reconciling Comparative and Internal Reconstruction: The Case of Old Japanese /ti, ri, ni/. Language 76:3.655–683. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Gelderen, Elly. 2013. The Linguistic Cycle and the Language Faculty. Language and Linguistics Compass 7:4.233–250. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vovin, Alexander. 2009. A Descriptive and Comparative Grammar of Western Old Japanese. Part 2: Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Particles, Postpositions. Folkestone: Global Oriental.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Kazuha. 2005. The Development of Continuous Aspect. Historical Linguistics 2003 ed. by Michael Fortescue et al., 301–315. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yamada, Kiyoshi. 2001. Gyokujinshō no gohō [The language of the Gyokujinshō]. Ōsaka: Seibundō.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, Akiho. 2001a. Keri. Nihongo Bunpō Daijiten [Great Dictionary of Japanese Grammar] ed. by Akiho Yamaguchi & Morihide Akimoto, 234–236. Tōkyō: Meiji Shoin.Google Scholar
. 2001b. Ta. Nihongo Bunpō Daijiten [Great Dictionary of Japanese Grammar] ed. by Akiho Yamaguchi & Morihide Akimoto, 422–424. Tōkyō: Meiji Shoin.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, Gyōji. 2003. Jodōshishi o saguru [Investigating the history of auxiliaries]. Ōsaka: Izumi Shoin.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, Yoshinori. 1986. Kodai Nihongo bunpō no seiritsu no kenkyū [Research on the formation of Ancient Japanese grammar]. Tōkyō: Yuseido.Google Scholar
Yuzawa, Kōkichirō. 1936. Tokugawa jidai gengo no kenkyū [Study of the language of the Tokugawa period]. Tōkyō: Nae Shoin.Google Scholar
Primary references
Kojima, Noriyuki, Masatoshi Kinoshita & Akihiro Satake. 1971–1975. Man’yōshū, 41 vols. (Nihon koten bungaku zenshū 1–4). Tōkyō: Shogakukan.Google Scholar
Mabuchi, Kazuo, Fumimaro Kunisaki & Tōru Konno. 1971–1976. Konjaku Monogatari, 41 vols (Nihon koten bungaku zenshū 21–24). Tōkyō: Shogakukan.Google Scholar
Ozawa, Masao (ed.). 1971. Kokin Wakashū. Tōkyō: Shōgakkan.Google Scholar