日本語の文末表現「～がある」とモダリティ

Abstract

This paper investigates the Japanese sentence-final expression “~ga aru,” which is commonly associated with modal meanings such as “ki ga aru,” “koto ga aru,” and “hitsuyou ga aru.” The study examines whether “~ga aru” can be considered to function as a modality from a grammatical perspective. Specifically, it classifies the various meanings of “~ga aru” into four categories: volition, possibility, necessity, and evidence. The paper then compares the grammatical properties of each type of “~ga aru” with the corresponding canonical modal forms. The results suggest that, when compared with their corresponding modal forms, most instances of “~ga aru” exhibit a lower degree of grammaticalization. However, the study also indicates that some instances show evidence of ongoing grammaticalization. For instance, the “possibility” type “koto ga aru” is observed to exhibit behavior more akin to the modal forms “da rou” and “ka mo shi re na i” than to other possibility expressions such as “kanousei ga aru” or “osore ga aru”.