推定のモダリティ副詞と文の事態内容に対する話し手の認識的判断 -「どうも」「どうやら」「よほど(よっぽど)」を話し手情報の観点から-

Abstract

In this paper, I put forth an analysis of Japanese estimation adverbs “doumo”, “douyara”, and “yohodo(yoppodo)” with respect to the contextual information and a speaker's background information. The main points are summarized as follows: (1) “Doumo” and “douyara” have gradations of meaning depending on the levels of the speaker information, but it is not the case for “yohodo(yoppodo). This shows that its usage is somewhat different from other Japanese estimation adverbs. (2) With respect to the speaker’s background information based on contextual evidence, there is a slight difference between “doumo/douyara” and “yohodo”, when they are used with the meaning of surmise, in the order of “douyara” (about 56%) > “doumo” (about 49%) > “yohodo” (about 35%). (3) “Doumo” and “douyara” are not only used in similar ways with the meaning of surmise, but both of them are also used with the meanings of softening and intuition/prediction in about 13% and 30-37% of their occurrences, respectively, and thus, there is no significant difference in the usage of the two adverbs. (4) About 41% of the occurrences of “yohodo” are used with the meaning of surmise, and when we include such usages as question/doubt, predication in the context of comparison, inserted clauses, and conjunction, 58% of its occurrences are used to indicate degree.