The verbalization of Sino-Japanese words

This thesis examines essential factors for the verbalization of Sino-Japanese words in a way different from the preceding studies which focus on verbal character, aspect and volitionality of these words. In these previous researches, verbal character is considered as the most important element for the verbalization of Sino-Japanese words. However, many verbs of this kind do not have a verbal character, and there are still some Sino-Japanese words which cannot be regarded as verbs although they do have a verbal character. For example, Sino-Japanese verbs such as “kouyou”(autumn leaves turn yellow or red), “mujun”(be inconsistent with) and “muri”(overwork) do not have a verbal character, and some Sino-Japanese words which do have a verbal character like “aikoku”(patriotism), “hattyaku”(arrival and departure) are not viewed as verbs. In the previous studies, these Sino-Japanese words mentioned above are simply treated as exceptions of grammatical rules, and these studies concentrate only on Sino-Japanese verbs. In this thesis those non-verb Sino-Japanese words are taken into consideration and compared with Sino-Japanese verbs from a new point of view. Chapter 3 explores the verbalization of Sino-Japanese words by the formation and categories of their morphemes, while Chapter 4 by their phases of action, and Chapter 5 by word definitions. Especially Chapter 4 and 5 are the main features of this thesis, which differs from the previous studies by analyzing the examples of Sino-Japanese nouns pragmatically. Furthermore, since there was no explicit semantic definition for verbal character of Sino-Japanese verbs in preceding researches, while approving that verbal character facilitates the verbalization of Sino-Japanese words, this thesis adopts the term “eventuality” by Koyano(1995) and re-defines it, thus clarifying the relationships between eventuality and verbal character. In the end, this thesis concludes that as to the verbalization of Sino-Japanese words, it is clear that the formation of morphemes affects more than the categories of them. Moreover, although it is effective to judge the verbalization of Sino-Japanese words by the formation of morphemes and phases of action, the judgment will be more precise if eventuality is also taken into consideration.