Semantics Research Group Meeting, March 7, 2019

This study analyzes the diachronic semantic shift of the Japanese V-e-ba (izenkei-ba) construction. In Old Japanese (OJ), V-e-ba appears to mark a causal adjunct clause as can be seen in the use of causal connectives node in Modern Japanese (ModJ) and because in English translations in (1).

(1) a. kurushiki koto nomi masar-e-ba, … (OJ)
     b. tsurai koto bakari fueteiku node, … (ModJ)
         “Because only harsh things happen, (she was very much depressed).” (Genji, 11th C)

On the other hand, the V-e-ba form in ModJ appears to mark a conditional adjunct (antecedent) as in (2).

(2) a. uramu bekaram fushi-o-mo, nikukarazu kasumenas-a-ba, … (OJ)
     b. uramu no-ga mottomona ten-mo kawairashiku bokashite i-e-ba, … (ModJ)
         “Even the things you definitely hate, if you just mention them sweetly, (men will love you more).” (Genji, 11th C)

Furthermore, in Middle Japanese (MidJ), the use of V-e-ba as logical/symmetric conjunction has emerged as in (3).

(3) narimono-ni obie-nu mo ar-e-ba, obieru ko mo ar-oosi. (MidJ)
     “Probably, some kids are not scared by a loud noise and some are scared.” (Ukiyoburo, 19th C)

The goal of this study is to account for how the interpretation of V-e-ba shifted from causal to conditional (via logical/symmetric conjunction). The core semantics of the V-e-ba construction is a sequential conjunction in the sense of update semantics, i.e., \(c[\varphi\mbox{-e-ba }\psi]=c[\varphi][\psi]\). The causal meaning in OJ is obtained by an I-implicature (conjunction buttressing), while the conditional meaning in ModJ is obtained by a Q-implicature. The proposed diachronic development is in accordance with Deo's (2015) Evolutionary Game Theory model that underpins the grammaticalization paths from the semantic-pragmatic perspective.