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

本研究收集了前人对波利尼西亚语的研究成果和波利尼西亚语的各种语言学资料。为了收集一些在日本无法获得的材料，我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。在24个波利尼西亚语言的方向的描述，从以前的作品收集在这项研究中获得。两个方向，意思是“朝向说话者”和“远离说话者”，几乎在所有24种波利尼西亚语言中都有发现。另外两个方向音，分别表示“向上”和“向下”，在24种波利尼西亚语言中的大多数中都有发现。第五指向和第六指向在一些波利尼西亚语言的描述中被发现。在许多波利尼西亚语言中，动词/副词"different/differently"也有指向意义"away，apart"，这在一些关于波利尼西亚语言的早期著作中被认为是一个方向。方位词也用来表示空间或时间上的位置。趋向句有许多派生用法。在许多波利尼西亚语言中，四种常见的方向词被用来表示比较。在比较表达中，两个趋向性，分别表示"远离说话人"和"向上"，往往被广泛使用，而另外两个趋向性，分别表示"朝向说话人"和"向下"，用于表示"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".