言語における語形と意味の接点 : 親族名称を通じて行なった一試考

Abstract

The main object of this paper is to analyze linguistically the relation between a word form and the meaning from the historical point of view. With a view to establishing a method proper for further investigation the author has, in this paper, gone into Japanese kinship terms, the materials of which are available and easy to gather. It has been the author's belief that the context is indispensable in order to tell which member a term really designates and further to see in which situation the term is used. When the context fails, however, to orient us as to the real designation of the term, the genealogy is the only source to decide which member the term stands for. It is Japanese classics that best meet the conditions and the author has found the most useful, reliable materials in the series of Iwanami's Koten Bungaku Zenshu. The investigation has resulted in the following finding : 1) The forms and meanings of some of the kinship terms have been gradually changing through the last one thousand two hundred years (from the beginning of the Nara Period up to today), as seen in "imo" 2) Some of the changes in meaning seem to have been invited from the interplay of form and meaning. For example, in the Joko Period "imo" used to designate a sister, either elder or younger, but it gradually came to mean only a younger sister, when the term "ane" was introduced, designating an elder sister. On the other hand, "oto" which used to mean a brother, elder or younger, was limited in use, when ani came into use, designating only an elder brother. The process of these shiftings seems to have come to an end when the forms of these terms firmly stood in syllabic and formal contrasts, such as a/ni/-a/ne/, o/to/to/-i/mo/to/. Such linguistic binary as observed seems to have much to do with the kinship system itslf. It is, however, too early to decide here that the the result is linguistically universal. This present paper should only be a pre-test with a view to finding proper method for furter investigation. The author intends to apply this method to the materials available in Middle and Old English.