「とか」の意味機能に関する記述的研究

Abstract

This paper describes the grammatical features of "toka" in modern Japanese, focusing on its semantic functions. "Toka" is basically used in the parallel form "A toka B (toka)," which has a meaning of an example. The usage "A toka", expressing only one element, also means an example, but the recent trend among young people has seen an increase in the use of "toka" for euphemistic expressions and emphatic examples, known as “pseudo-examples” and “emphatic examples”, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that the usage of "A toka" as a quotation can lead to meanings related to ”hearsay“ and ”possibility estimation“ depending on the semantic and syntactic conditions. This use of “possibility estimation” has not been mentioned in the previous researches and I could say this is the one of the contributions of this paper. Lastly, in Japanese language education, the parallel paricle "A toka B toka" is typically introduced at the beginners’ level as an usage of “example function”, while other uses are rarely taught at classes. It seems necessary to teach meanings such as “hearsay” and “possibility estimation” to intermediate and advanced Japanese learners.