THE SEMANTIC NATURE OF TENSE AMBIGUITY: RESOLVING TENSE AND ASPECT IN JAPANESE PHRASAL CONSTRUCTIONS
Date Available
6-14-2017
Year of Publication
2017
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Document Type
Master's Thesis
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
Linguistics
First Advisor
Dr. Gregory Stump
Second Advisor
Dr. Fabiola Henri
Abstract
The nature of tense in classical Japanese is vague and uncertain, sometimes appearing to be interpretable by combinations of particular verbs with specific verbal auxiliaries and sometimes appearing to be absent altogether. The present study introduces a series of these so-called tense-bearing auxiliaries in classical Japanese while attempting to show that their use can be ambiguous based on the contexts in which they appear. The notions of context driven semantic formalism are explored as a possible means to derive truth from these utterances that seem otherwise tenseless when taken out of context. To accomplish this, time and tense are given very specific meaning and definition and thereafter explored in the context of both modern and classical Japanese.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.421
Recommended Citation
Bruno, Annabelle T., "THE SEMANTIC NATURE OF TENSE AMBIGUITY: RESOLVING TENSE AND ASPECT IN JAPANESE PHRASAL CONSTRUCTIONS" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics. 24.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/24
