The 'Genji Monogatari' : a loose sequence of vague phrases?
In the thesis I test the hypothesis that Late Old Japanese (LOJ) is not, as has been claimed by a number of scholars, a language that is innately ~vague~, but that it is capable of conveying meaning clearly. To prove this I analyse the text of the Genji Monogatari in a number of ways. I study the usage of honorifics in the text and the relationship between honorific usage and court rank. I show that honorific usage very often obviates the need for grammatical subjects and objects, and where honorifics or the context are not sufficient, the author introduces subjects to clarify the meaning of the text. Furthermore, I demonstrate that over brief sections of text, one character might be ~tagged~ with a particular honorific in order to identify them. Status at the Heian court was determined by court rank, and the higher a person's rank, the more honorifics had to be used. I investigate how characters could be identified when several people of similar ranks interacted. This will show that use by the author of the category of theme as well as occasional subjects serves to identify characters. I examine the applicability of the phenomenon of switch reference to LOJ, attempting to determine how far it may have enabled
McAuley, Thomas Evelyn
Late Old Japanese
The 'Genji Monogatari' : a loose sequence of vague phrases?. In the thesis I test the hypothesis that Late Old Japanese (LOJ) is not, as has been claimed by a number of scholars, a language that is innately ~vague~, but that it is capable of conveying meaning clearly. To prove this I analyse the text of the Genji Monogatari in a number of ways. I study the usage of honorifics in the text and the relationship between honorific usage and court rank. I show that honorific usage very often obviates the need for grammatical subjects and objects, and where honorifics or the context are not sufficient, the author introduces subjects to clarify the meaning of the text. Furthermore, I demonstrate that over brief sections of text, one character might be ~tagged~ with a particular honorific in order to identify them. Status at the Heian court was determined by court rank, and the higher a person's rank, the more honorifics had to be used. I investigate how characters could be identified when several people of similar ranks interacted. This will show that use by the author of the category of theme as well as occasional subjects serves to identify characters. I examine the applicability of the phenomenon of switch reference to LOJ, attempting to determine how far it may have enabled
loose sequence vague phrase test_hypothesis late old japanese claim number_scholar language vague capable convey mean clearly prove analyse text number way study usage honorific text relationship honorific usage court rank show honorific usage often need grammatical subject_object honorific context sufficient author introduces subject clarify mean text furthermore brief section text character might particular honorific order_identify them status court determine court rank high person rank honorific use investigate character could_identify several people similar rank interact show use author category theme well occasional subject serve identify character examine applicability phenomenon switch reference attempt_determine far may enable