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Directional verbs in English and Japanese

University of British Columbia

The English, directional verbs come and go basically correspond to Japanese kuru and iku. Therefore, the behaviours of come and go are similar to those of kuru and iku respectively. However, there also exist some differences between them. The various similarities and differences in simplex and complex sentences are investigated in this thesis. Pragmatics of directional verbs varies according to the structure. The discussion is based on how the deictic point is involved in these verbs. The deictic point is usually at the speaker; however, the possibilities for viewpoint shift toward the hearer or a third person are very different for English and Japanese directional verbs. Next, systematic generalizations on the occurrences of directional verbs in English and Japanese which have been proposed by Oye are introduced. These generalizations are based on viewpoint --- the significant question is, "In a complex sentence from the viewpoint of which noun phrase is the motion observed?" However, since it is sometimes difficult to determine which noun phrase is significant when viewpoint shift is involved, a performative analysis is suggested as a more useful device. This analysis makes clear the conditions under which the motion is expressed by come, go, kuru or iku.

Text

2010-03-09

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21677

Linguistics

University of British Columbia

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