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Paper short abstract:

This study examines truncated predicates in Japanese. By investigating various texts, I will argue that morphologically or syntactically incomplete predicates are becoming established within the language as a strategy for efficiency, by overcoming syntactic limits through re-finitization.

Paper long abstract:

This study examines truncated predicates in Japanese. By investigating data from various texts, I will argue that morphologically or syntactically incomplete predicates are successfully becoming established within the language as one type of strategy for efficiency, by overcoming syntactic limits through 're-finitization'.

The complete or partial truncation of predicates has frequently been adopted in various written texts. Typical cases are observed in those with an upper limit on word count such as newspaper headlines or translated subtitles, in which function words such as the copula da or the function verb suru are easily eliminated for spatial efficiency. This economy, however, disadvantages truncated predicates by causing them to lose their finiteness, which would be potentially manifested through grammatical forms such as tense, modality, aspect, and voice.

In recent examples, though, some truncated non-finite expressions such as -kamo(sirenai) and -nakutya(naranai) are now re-finitized and accompanied by da. For instance, aru-kamo in 'Kore-ha mazi-de zenkoo-ooen aru-kamo-da-zo.'('The whole school cheering might actually happen!'), with da intervening, can be followed by sentence-final modality forms expressing the speaker's mental state.

One reason for this re-finitization might be the recovery of original grammatical accessibility to various modality expressions such as zo, noda, etc., which attach to finite predicates. In addition, truncated expressions cannot appear in the predicate position of subordinate clauses because common connectives such as kedo, ga, and si require finite predicates. Thus, in order to overcome these morphosyntactic constraints, these expressions must be re-finitized by adding da, instead of simply being restored to their original, finite forms. This means that re-finitized predicates achieve efficiency by staying concise and maintaining the pragmatic effects gained through truncation, while adding accessibility to grammatical forms. Some supportive evidence for this claim can be found in corpus data.

These observations lead to the conclusion that re-finitization of these incomplete predicates is functionally motivated by the need for both efficiency and expressiveness. Moreover, this is in line with universal trends in language change. In general, change is first triggered by erosion, such as ellipsis, and is then followed by a process of grammatical reinterpretation, such as reanalysis or re-finitization.