양태를 나타내는 조동사 「そうだ」와 접미사 「げ」의 의미․용법

Abstract

In this article, we note that the frequency of elements to which the manner auxiliary verb souda is attached and that to which the suffix ge is attached differ in attested examples, and observe differences in meaning and usage between the two expressions. Our finding is that souda is used when the speaker judges or expects the emotion/property of the object, while ge is used when the speaker notes the appearance of the object and emphasizes the state of the object. Furthermore, we observe that the selection of either souda or ge depends on their lexical properties and how the speaker construes the state of the object. The lexical bases whose frequencies are radically low, however, would require a cognitive linguistic consideration of how the speaker construes the state of the object and how the semantic domain of souda and that of ge have shifted. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of acceptability, because there is a possibility that a idiomatic combination exists also in souda, it seems that there are other examples such as this, and also in other populations such as internet space. It is thought that it is necessary to investigate whether the examples can be found.