Historical and Contrastive Linguistics Study of Japanese Questions and their Related Constructions

在这个研究项目中，我描述了问题及其相关结构的历史，特别关注中古日语之后的语言。作为调查的结果，它展示了ka和yara等用于构成疑问句的粒子如何获得各种用途。本项目亦旨在通过对比日文、韩文及琉球的史料，对历史进程进行语言学研究。我认为值得这些研究的模式之一是附加子句的标记演变成在矩阵子句中起作用的小品。这一句法过程可以解释ka的不定用法和yara的例证用法的成因。

In this research project, I described the history of questions and their related constructions, particularly focusing on the languages after Middle Japanese. As the result of the survey, it was demonstrated how the particles such as ka and yara, which are used to form questions, acquired various uses. This project aimed also at the linguistic investigation of the historical process by contrasting the historical data of Japanese with Korean and Ryukyuan. One of the patterns which I consider as worth those investigations is the one where a marker of the adjoined clause evolves into a particle functioning in matrix clauses. We showed that this syntactic process can explain the genesis of indefinite use of ka and that of exemplification use of yara.