奈良時代語の述語状態化標識として成立したリ、タリ、ナリ  [in Japanese] On the Stative Markers ri, tari and nari Attached to Verbal Predicates in Old Japanese  [in Japanese]

奈良時代語のリ・タリ・ナリは、連体修飾の用例に密集する。ナルは、「駿河ナル富士」のような「場所ナル物」タイプの存在表示が類型表現としてほぼ固定している。ル・タルは、多様な表現を取り「述語格連体形・主格体言」(絶えタル恋)と「主語・述語連体形・被修飾体言」(我が持てル心)の統語構造がある。連体修飾は原理的に「形容詞的用法」と考えられ、現代語研究ではこの見通しが実証されている。筆者の調査によれば奈良時代語文献において連体修飾ル、タルを含む句では格関係を離脱して状態性を表示した例が多く、中でも「述語格連体形・主格体言」の構造下におけるル、タルの上接動詞は、自動詞が圧倒的多数である。さらにその用例の多くが格関係を離脱して(すなわちテンス性を脱して)物事の状態や変化の結果を表示する「形容詞的」用法である。連体修飾に密集するリ・タリ・ナリは、述語の意味を状態表示する形容詞的用法として成立したと見られる。

The suffixes ri, tari (perfect suffixes) and nari (copulative suffix) in Old Japanese were derived by contractions of the connective forms and the existential verb ari 'exist, be' : (V) i ari> (Ve) ri, (V) te ari> (V) tari, (N) ni ari > (N) nari. This paper argues that these three suffixes were markers of stativity at the first stage of their grammaticalization. In Man'yoshu, most examples of ri, tari and nari appeared in adnominal position, and the greater part of the verbs used with ri and tari in the adnominal context were intransitive verbs which described agentless situations. These facts can be explained as follows : adnominal forms of verbs are virtually adjectivized forms of verbs, as the Japanese grammarians argue, and adnominal positions functioned as contexts of adjectivization. The original expressions i ari, te ari and ni ari, which had the meaning of existence, were contracted by the force of adjectivization, and their contracted forms ri, tari and nari captured the grammatical function of marking stativity. Thus nari described the state which the object itself had as its property, while ri and tari focused on the state caused by the action. Agentless situations described by intransitive verbs were compatible with adjectivization.