Contrastive Studies on Meaning and Functions of Four Directionals in Polynesian Languages

本研究收集了有关波利尼西亚语言的前人著作和各种波利尼西亚语言的语料。为了收集一些在日本找不到的材料，人们两次前往法属波利尼西亚。波利尼西亚语言中有数量有限的词，称为方向词。本研究收集了24种波利尼西亚语言的方向词描述。在几乎所有的24种波利尼西亚语言中，都有两个方向词，分别表示“朝向说话人”和“远离说话人”。在24种波利尼西亚语言中的大多数语言中，还有两个方向词，分别表示向上和向下。在一些波利尼西亚语言的描述中发现了第五个方向和第六个方向。在许多波利尼西亚语言中，动词/副词“Different/Different”也有指向的意思“离开，分开”，这在以前的一些波利尼西亚语言研究中被认为是指向。方位词也用来表示在空间或时间上的位置。方向词有很多派生用法。在许多波利尼西亚语言中，四个共同的方向词被用来表示比较。在比较表达中，两个方向词往往被广泛使用，分别表示“远离说话人”和“向上”，而另外两个方向词，分别表示“朝向说话人”和“向下”，则表示“较小”或“较少”。

Previous works on Polynesian languages and various kinds of linguistic data of Polynesian languages were collected in this research. In order to collect some materials unavailable in Japan, two trips to French Polynesia were made.Polynesian languages have a limited number of words called directionals. Descriptions of directionals in 24 Polynesian languages were obtained from previous works collected in this research. Two directionals, meaning "towards the speaker" and "away from the speaker" respectively, were found in almost all 24 Polynesian languages. Two more directionals, meaning "upward" and "downward" respectively, were found in the majority of the 24 Polynesian languages. The fifth directional and the sixth directional were found in descriptions of a few Polynesian languages. In many Polynesian languages, the verb/adverb "differ/differently" also has a directional meaning "away, apart", which is considered a directional in some previous works on Polynesian languages.Directionals are basically used to show a direction of movement. Directionals are also used to show location in space or in time. There are many derivative usages of directionals. Four common directionals are used to show comparison in many Polynesian languages. In comparative expressions, two directionals, meaning "away from the speaker" and "upward" respectively, tend to be used extensively, while the other two directionals, meaning "towards the speaker" and "downward" respectively, are used to mean "smaller" or "fewer".