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Paper short abstract:

This talk will propose that the stative/attributive meaning of the Japanese X wa Y o shiteiru pattern is established based on the dynamic meaning, namely the agentivity of suru by presenting linguistic facts that suggest that suru retains a ‘vestige’ of active meaning even in this usage.

Paper long abstract:

The Japanese linguistic pattern in the form of X wa Y o shiteiru, which uses the verb suru in the predicate, has various usages as follows.

(1) Musume wa nawatobi o shiteiru. ‘My daughter is doing jump rope.’

(2) Tsuma wa akai neiru o shiteiru. ‘My wife is wearing red nail polish.’

(3) Musume wa ureshi-souna kao o shiteiru. ‘My daughter is making a happy face.’

(4) Otousan wa marui kao o shiteiru. ‘My father has a round face.’

The interpretation of each of these usages should be described using different verbs when translated into English. Of these, the usage shown in (4) is interesting in that it describes the state or attribute of an object using the verb suru, which typically represents the performance or execution of an action or activity. Why is the verb suru, whose primary meaning is dynamic, used in this usage that expresses a static meaning? According to Kageyama (2004), suru here is a mere ornament used to establish the form of a sentence and has no practical sense. Contrary to this view, this talk, by presenting linguistic facts that suggest that suru retains a ‘vestige’ of active meaning even in this usage, will propose that the stative/attributive meaning of the pattern in question is also established based on the dynamic meaning, namely the agentivity (cf. Lakoff 1977; Lions 1977), of suru. The fact that the active sense of suru is even used to denote such static meanings is an intriguing issue from a cross-linguistic perspective. It raises the question of whether linguistic patterns with verbs that conceptualize the action or activity represent a state or attribute of an object can be found in languages other than Japanese.

Selected References

Kageyama, T. 2004. Kei-doushi-koubun toshiteno ‘aoi me o shiteiru’ koubun. Journal of Japanese Grammar 4(1), 22-37.

Lakoff, G. 1977. Linguistic Gestalts. Papers from the Thirteenth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, 236-287.

Lions, J. 1977. Semantics Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, London and New York.