Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the historical development of Modern Japanese multiverb mono-clausal predicates containing constructions such as V-te oku, V-te shimau, etc. It deals with their ongoing grammaticalization and possible contact influences.

Paper long abstract:

Modern Standard Japanese is filled with various multiverb mono-clausal predicates (MMC) of different types. This paper focuses on the development of MMC that in general contain a converb form of a content verb (colloquially known as the te-form) and an auxiliary/semi-auxiliary, such as V-te iru, V-te oku, V-te shimau, V-te iku, etc. While these constructions nowadays may seem as if they were always an integral part of the Japanese grammar, the whole picture is actually rather more complicated. This paper deals with the diachronic development and possible contact influences leading to the grammaticalization of these MMC. As these constructions differ both in their age and level of grammaticalization, the diachrony of the individual constructions will be discussed in detail first separately (using extant textual sources ranging from Manyōshū, through Esopo no Faburasu, to 19th century novels) and then as a whole to give a complex picture of the processes through which this salient feature of Modern Japanese came to be. Afterwards, the development of MMC in Japanese will be put into context by contrasting them with similar constructions found in the typologically similar languages of the area, predominantly Korean, but also nearby Tungusic languages (mostly Manchu and Sibe).