How do you do in Japanese: On the most verb-like verb of Japanese
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The opposition of DO-type-of-expression and BECOME-type-of expression (?????????) in the Japanese language has been known at least since Teramura (1976). This oppose-tion was later developed into a typological category by Ikegami (1981) and has since been extensively examined. While most of the focus has been on Japanese predominantly being a BECOME-language, there has also been criticism regarding the relative preference of constructions with the verb suru (Noda, 2015) or the core meaning of this verb (Takebayashi, 2008). There is a strong justification for examining suru given that it is the second most frequently used verb in Japanese (following iu, according to Tono et al., 2013) and one of the first verbs that JFL students learn. However, the very nature of this expression is highly problematic. In this presentation, I will discuss the identity of the Japanese verb suru from a constructionist perspective. I will highlight the diverse functions of the expression and the challenges in defining its identity, both as a lexical item and as a functional (grammatical) morpheme. Additionally, I will argue for the separation of the typological concept of a DO-language (??(?)??) from the verb suru. My conclusions will support the Radical Construction Grammar framework (Croft, 2001), which views a construction as the elementary unit of a grammar. |