The perfective imperative in Japanese: A further analysis
Author
Summary, in English
The present thesis is concerned with a descriptive analysis of a phenomenon in the Japanese language, the use as an imperative of two suffixes of tense and aspect, -ta and -tari. The use of the past tense form (or ta-form) as an imperative in modern Japanese has been touched upon by various scholars, but a detailed account of the construction, its diachrony, and its place in a cross-linguistic context has not previously been performed. These aspects of the constructions are described in detail, and a contrastive analysis determines how imperative -ta differs from other imperatives in modern Japanese. The relation between aspect and imperative utterances manifested in imperative -ta is discussed, focusing on the connection between imperative -ta and perfective aspect. The discussion also focuses on the occurrence of past tense and perfective imperatives cross-linguistically. These phenomena are connected through the concept of deictic projection (Lyons 1977, Tavangar and Amouzadeh 2006).
Department/s
- Japanese Studies
- Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
Publishing year
2010
Language
English
Full text
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Document type
Student publication for Master's degree (two years)
Topic
- Languages and Literatures
Keywords
- deictic projection
- imperative
- Japanese
- past tense
- perfective aspect
- -ta
- -tari
- Aspect
Supervisor
- Lars Larm