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Abstract
This book examines the relationship between language change and language acquisition, taking up the case of Japanese benefactive constructions. In this study, I call those constructions in which the Japanese giving and receiving verbs are used as an auxiliary verb to communicate some sort of beneficiarity as ‘benefactive constructions’. In Chapter 1, I review previous research on the relationship between historical language change and children’s language acquisition. I argue that while previous research often discusses the relationship between language change and language acquisition in terms of replication model, this study takes an empirical approach by pointing out the communicative desire of speakers that motivate both changes. To examine the directionality of historical language change and children’s language acquisition, I will analyze the variations of Japanese benefactive constructions using Role and Reference Grammar and hypothesize that one constructional variation will develop into another constructional variation. In other words, both the historical and child development of Japanese benefactive constructions can be captured and discussed in terms of variational change. Chapter 2 offers a Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) analysis of Japanese benefactive constructions. Using the RRG framework, I argue that Japanese benefactive constructions involve three types of linkage: (1) nuclear coordination, (2) nuclear cosubordination, and (3) nuclear subordination. Crucially, such structural difference coincides with the different senses of benefactives—recipient benefactive, plain benefactive, and deputative benefactive proposed by Van Valin & LaPolla (1997). Following Ohori’s (1992) claim—a diachronic tendency regarding the grammaticalization of clause linkage, that is from a less to more tightly integrated linkage from both semantic and structural points of view—I hypothesize that Japanese benefactive constructions first emerged as (1) nuclear coordination, then developed to (2) nuclear cosubordination, and finally to (3) nuclear subordination (Hypothesis I). As for children’s language acquisition, research has shown that children first acquire the most discourse-interactional function of a form prior to its referential function (Shatz et al., 1983; Wells, 1985; Sprott, 1992; Joseph, 2014; Kubota, 2016;). Based on this research, I hypothesize that children will acquire the most grammaticalized/constructionalized functions of linguistic constructions prior to their less grammaticalized/constructionalized counterparts because grammaticalized/constructionalized forms carry the most pragmatically enriched meanings that are essential in human communication. Japanese-speaking children will acquire the nuclear subordination type first—before the nuclear cosubordination type and the nuclear coordination type (Hypothesis II). This means the children’s language acquisitional pattern will go in a reversed direction from the historical development of linguistic constructions. In Chapter 3, I present my study of the historical development of Japanese benefactive constructions with giving and receiving verbs—yaru, ageru, kureru, and morau. RRG analysis confirms Hypothesis I only with the benefactive constructions having the earliest giving verb yaru. From the Muromachi era (1336–1573), benefactive constructions with other verbs started appearing—ageru, kureru, and morau. Hypothesis I was not confirmed with these verbs. In fact, these late verbs started appearing as nuclear subordination contrary to the hypotheses. I concluded that the benefactive construction with yaru may have acted as an ‘attractor’ to other verbs. In Chapter 4, I present my study of the acquisition of Japanese benefactive constructions. RRG analysis reveals that children in Japan use the most constructionalized/grammaticalized benefactive construction types first while Japanese heritage children in the U.S. use the least constructionalized/grammaticalized benefactive construction types first, except one child, Hypothesis II was only confirmed for children in Japan. The acquisitional pattern of Japanese heritage children in the U.S. was actually like the historical development of benefactive constructions.