現代日本語における「ゆえ」の意味と機能

Abstract

This paper examines the meanings and the functions of “yue” in modern Japanese through actual example sentence analysis. Regarding “yue”, which is the main subject of this thesis, there have been previous studies describing that it is placed after nouns and verbs to indicate “cause, reason”. From the viewpoint of change of meaning (abstraction) and restriction of forms, there are no previous studies that clearly state these three relationships: ① the case of a noun usage, ② the case of postpositional usage, and ③ the case of conjunctive particle usage. Accordingly, this paper aimed to analyze the meanings and the functions of the above three cases. The results of the investigations are summarized as follows. First, the noun usage represents the specific meaning of “cause, reason” indicated by the front noun. “N + yue” can take various cases. This usage was present before modern times, but this usage is rarely seen in modern times. Second, when “yue” is used as a postposition, it represents the abstract meaning of “because” indicated by the front noun. Morphologically, it is limited to one form of “N + yueni”. Third, when “yue” is used as a conjunctive particle, it expresses the abstract meaning of “because” indicated by the front verb. Morphologically, it is limited to two forms: “V+yueni” and “V+yue”. From the above important findings, the starting point of the Japanese "yue" is to function as a noun usage while expressing the specific meaning of "cause, reason", but in modern Japanese languages, the usages of a postposition or a conjunctive particle have been almost completed. When “yue” in the noun usage becomes a postposition or a conjunctive particle, significant changes in form and meaning occur.