二音節語基派生語の意味変化に関する通時的研究

Abstract

This study analyzes the process of semantic changes of disyllabic base derivatives. The aim here is to clarify which aspects are changing and which are not. Specifically, this study covers the diversely formed onomatopoeia, adjectives, attributive verbs, and verbs that derive from ‘apophonic disyllabic bases’ that appear in ancient records and are still in use. Furthermore, the study examines how the core image, which commonly appears in such derivatives, influences the meanings of those different derivatives. In particular, this study takes as its main subject the pairs of bases in ‘equivalent alternations’ that have been considered in previous studies related to semantic differentiation but whose specific differences were never mentioned and examines them from the perspective of cognitive semantics. The results of this study suggest that the bases that are equivalent in apophony have a common core image and that they have engaged in semantic differentiation through vowel gradation, which varies depending whether it is from the auditory perspective or from the visual perspective. Moreover, this study shows that among the visual semantics, the difference between indicating the dynamic ‘motion’ or the static ‘state’ influences the semantic differentiation of the derivatives. However, the core image that the base originally has remains unchanged as it is maintained and preserved no matter what derivative the word may become. This result provides the reason why there are words that not only seem phonologically similar but also semantically similar in modern onomatopoeia. This is because those words have a common core image at the base level.