近現代語における「多分」の副詞用法の定着

Abstract

In this thesis, the data of 『Taiyō』 and 『Aozorabunko』 are used to examine the settlement of the adverb “Tabun” in modern language ranging from the Meiji-poeriod to the Showa-period. Through collecting the examples of how the adverb “Tabun” is used from the two data, the overall tendency of usage of “Tabun” is reviewed. As a result, it was confirmed that “Tabun” is most commonly used as an adverb and second most commonly used as an adverbial modifier. It was also confirmed that the use of “Tabun” as an adverb is gradually decreasing whereas the use of it as an adverbial modifier is gradually increasing. As a result of analyzing the examples of how “Tabun” is used, it was pointed out that its use as a noun and as an adverb has a transitional example. In addition, it was revealed that its use as a noun makes a transition into its use as a modal adverb under circumstances where a conjectual auxiliary verb develops a co-occurrence relation with an auxiliary verb through representing the possibility of the materialization of situation. Furthermore, as a result of collecting the examples of how a sentence-final expression develops a co-occurrence relation with “Tabun”, it was pointed out that the tendency of using a sentence-final expression that develops a co-occurrence relation with the conjectual auxiliary verb 「daro」 decreases whereas the tendency of using a sentence-final expression that develops a co-occurrence relation with the 「to-omou」 increases, and that the tendency of excluding a sentence-final expression that expresses the uncertainty of the situation from predicates increases. Based on such tendencies examined, it was able to deduct a conclusion that “Tabun” has settled as a modal adverb that sufficiently represents a conjecture without having to develop a co-occurrence relation with a sentence-final expression.