현대 일본어의 복수형 접미사「~たち」와 「~ら」의 비교 고찰

Abstract

This paper examines Japanese plural suffixes 「~たち」and 「~ら」fromsmorphological perspective. When 「~たち」and 「~ら」are attached to personalpronouns, common nouns, and proper nouns, three characteristics became apparent:i) For personal pronouns, they distinguish singular and plural forms. ii) Forcommon nouns, they denote general plurals and associative plurals. iii) For propernouns, they have much in common in terms of their usage in a sentence since theyboth display associative plurals. In the light of such observations, I argue thatsuffixes「~たち」and「~ら」appear to be semantically distinguished by speakers'cognitions. Specifically, suffix 「~たち binds referents into a group and bringsattention to the group. On the other hand, suffix「~ら」merely indicates a groupthat leads to lack of speakers' cognition or attention resulting in self-degradation orself-hatred nuance and limited use in newspaper report.