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Paper short abstract

Recently, some studies have proposed an evidential view of the Japanese -teiru form, arguing that it does not primarily express aspectual meanings but indicates information observable to the speaker. Focusing on visual expressions with mieru/mie-teiru, this study argues that this view is plausible.

Paper long abstract

Traditionally, the semantic function of the Japanese -teiru form has been analyzed primarily as expressing aspectual meanings. In contrast to this dominant view, several recent studies, including Sadanobu (2006), argue that the core meaning of -teiru lies in indicating that the information at issue in a given utterance is observed by the experiencer. From this perspective, -teiru can be regarded as expressing evidentiality in the sense that it specifies observation as the source of information.

While there may be room for discussion as to whether expressions describing information observed at the time of speech should fully count as evidential markers, adopting this observation-based interpretation of -teiru offers a promising way to provide a unified account of the wide range of meanings associated with this form. To illustrate this point, the present study focuses on visual expressions involving the mieru and mie-teiru forms, including the examples in (1)–(4), and examines in detail the contexts in which these expressions are appropriately used and the meanings they convey. Through this, the study investigates how the -teiru contributes to meaning in different types of visual expressions.

(1) a. Konya wa ama-no-gawa ga mieru. ‘The Milky Way is visible tonight.’

  b. Konya wa ama-no-gawa ga mie-teiru. ‘Tonight, (I can) see the Milky Way.’

(2) a. Natsu ni wa ama-no-gawa ga yoku mieru. ‘The Milky Way is clearly visible in summer.’

  b. *Natsu ni wa ama-no-gawa ga yoku mie-teiru.

(3) a. *Ano bokusā wa aite no panchi ga mieru.

b. Ano bokusā wa aite no panchi ga mie-teiru. ‘That boxer is reading his opponent’s punches.’

(4) a. Aite no panchi ga mieru. ‘(I) can read the opponent’s punches.’

  b. Watashi wa aite no panchi ga mie-teiru. ‘(I realize that) I can read the opponent’s punches.’

The analysis shows that, at least in visual expressions, the observability of the relevant information plays an important role in shaping the meanings conveyed by the sentence in the -teiru form. In conclusion, the study claims that approaches which view -teiru as an evidential expression may be effective in deepening our understanding of the semantics of -teiru.