16

This is somewhat related to the discussion of classical auxiliary verb ふ, mentioned in the answer to snailboat's question, What is the わ in 忌まわしい and 嘆かわしい?.

Another apparent iterative / repetitive ending that I've bumped into is る, attaching not to the 未然形【みぜんけい】 but instead to the old 終止形【しゅうしけい】. This suffix shows up much less often. Examples that come to mind are まく・まくる and むく・むくる, but I think there may be a few more that escape me at the moment. According to Shogakukan's Kokugo Dai Jiten dictionary, this form appears to have evolved from the classical 連体形【れんたいけい】, formed by adding る onto the 終止形【しゅうしけい】 for 二段{にだん} and 一段{いちだん} verbs (both 下{しも} and 上{かみ}). (I almost listed あく・あくる above, but I realized that あくる here is still restricted to 連体-only usage.)

Does anyone have any information on the process whereby this 連体形 form evolved into an apparent iterative/repetitive? Alternatively, does anyone have any explicit explanation of this formation and its semantic uses?

Community
  • 1
Eiríkr Útlendi
  • 37,445
  • 1
  • 72
  • 121
  • 1
    Are you aware that "iterative" and "repetitive" are terms for forms of aspect? Is that what you mean? – Thomas Gross May 20 '14 at 19:02
  • 1
    Re: aspect, yes. Have a look at the linked thread, that mentions the repetitive / continuative aspect conveyed by the auxiliary ふ. This る seems similar, but much more limited in use. – Eiríkr Útlendi May 20 '14 at 22:59
  • 1
    As you found out, まくる and むくる are the 連体形 of まく and むく. Their structure is mak-uru and muk-uru, rather than mak-u-ru and muk-u-ru because 終止形 is an inflectional suffix, and aspectual affixes are usually derivational. But it is rare for a derivational suffix to follow an inflectional one. Also note that the first /u/ of the -uru was replaced by /e/ because these verbs are 下二段. There is nothing especially iterative or repetitive about the 連体形 of the above verbs. The property resides in their lexical aspect. – Thomas Gross May 21 '14 at 07:14
  • 1
    @ThomasGross -- 1) まく is a 五段 verb that apparently evolved from a 四段 verb, and as such, the 連体形 would be まく, not まくる. Likewise for むく. Also, although both root verbs apparently had 下二段 variants, these are the intransitive forms, whereas the 四段 forms and the -る forms are transitive. I am left thinking that this -る is not the usual 連体形. 2) Not sure what you mean by aspectual affixes are usually derivational. Could you expand on that? Do you mean similar to how iterative / continuative ふ may have derived from あふ? – Eiríkr Útlendi May 21 '14 at 22:13
  • 1
    It has been known at least since Bybee 1985 that the morphemes after the verb appear in a specific order: valence - voice - aspect - tense, etc. Iterative, progressive, repetitive, etc. express aspect. Note that aspect is closer to the verb than tense. Your assumption reverses that, and thus goes against the grain of established knowledge. Up until and including aspect, morphemes are derivational suffixes, from tense on, they become inflectional suffixes. In Japanese, a derivational suffix cannot follow an inflectional suffix. See the paper by Narrog, (Journal) Morphology 2010 vol20/1. – Thomas Gross May 22 '14 at 09:58
  • 1
    It seems we may be talking past each other, and there are some things I realize I haven't been clear about. 1) I'm fine with the explanation that this -る is not an iterative, and that the iterative sense is supplied by the underlying verb. 2) That said, what is this -る? It does not appear to be the usual 連体形, in that the -る form of the 連体形 only applies to 二段 and 一段 verbs, and as noted above, the transitivity is all wrong for まく・まくる and むく・むくる for this -る to be a regular 連体形. Also, 二段 generally evolves into 一段, as did the normal 二段 forms of まく and むく, whereas this -る is 五段. So what is it? – Eiríkr Útlendi May 22 '14 at 20:58
  • 1
    I still don't understand which period you're talking about. For instance, there is no verb mukuru in contemporary Japanese. Else, please provide an example. I think your confusion simply stems from your disinclination to segment the verbs. The fact that you use kana instead of a phonematic segmentation seems to hint that you don't really understand how Japanese verbs are segmented. You may want to take a closer look at Suzuki Shigeyuki's work (here). I also believe that your question would improve if you provided examples. – Thomas Gross May 23 '14 at 06:43
  • 1
    まくる is in modern usage, and shows up in compounds like やりまくる, "to do something over and over again", or いいまくる, "to talk up a storm, to go on and on". For kanji usage, it's often spelled 捲る, further implying 巻く (alt spelling 捲く with the 手偏) + る. If Shogakukan is accurate, this verb is 五段 and transitive, evolving directly from 四段. むくる is an additional reading for 剥る, apparently also read as はつる, へずる, and へつる. Digging around for this one, it's only listed as 四段, so it's obsolete. That said, it seems to exhibit the same pattern of むく (四段他動) → むくる (四段他動). – Eiríkr Útlendi May 23 '14 at 07:53
  • 1
    Another possible example is 漏{く}く (四段自動) → modern 潜{くぐ}る (五段自動 and formerly read as くくる). – Eiríkr Útlendi May 23 '14 at 08:01
  • 1
    "Phonematic" is a new term for me. Re-reading this thread, I think you're suggesting that I should use romaji to more clearly show conjugational root boundaries. If so, まく mak-u → まくる makur-u. If this were an outgrowth of the regular 連体形 for 下二段 verbs, the expected form would be maku-ru, then replacing the first /u/ with /e/ to produce make-ru. Moreover, as far as I've learned, 下二段 verbs all uniformly become 下一段 verbs in modern Japanese. But makur-u is instead a 五段 verb, evolving from earlier 四段 makur-u. – Eiríkr Útlendi May 23 '14 at 17:56
  • 1
    Yes. I believe romanji would be better here. You're correct that makur-u is 五段 deriving from 四段 (my present source top lemma, in particular no. 5). I'm not entirely sure, though, that we're not dealing with a compound based on kur-u (here fourth from the top). Presently, I have no means to verify that. Can you check it out? – Thomas Gross May 23 '14 at 20:18
  • 2
    Possible prefixing with ma- or something similar instead: that is an interesting possibility. I do note, however, that a number of the meanings of mak-u (「布、または紙などを、一端を軸として、くるくると丸くする。」、「種を散らし植える。」) have overlap with makur-u (「端をまいて上げる。」、「追い散らす。」). The "winding" theme is in common with kur-u, but the "scattering" theme seems separate. Perhaps makur-u represents some kind of fusion of the two verbs mak-u and kur-u, somehow not exhibiting the expected form of makikur-u? I'll do some digging, see what I can find. – Eiríkr Útlendi May 23 '14 at 21:01
  • Could this be a case of mistaken analogy with some other word, as with うたがわしい and いかがわしい? – John Mar 07 '22 at 14:45
  • @John, I'm not sure -- I don't quite understand your question? Are you asking about makuru possibly being confused with something else? – Eiríkr Útlendi Mar 31 '22 at 00:00
  • Just as a fun example of this in (somewhat) contemporary usage: 「歳月流るる如し」 Although it is probably more common to say 「歳月人を待たず」 I would guess – derpda Apr 14 '22 at 00:18
  • 1
    @derpda, that's actually something different. :) That 流るる is the normal classical 連体形 of 流る, a verb with the 下二段 conjugation pattern. This 流る is the classical 終止形 or dictionary form of modern 流れる, a verb with the 下一段 conjugation pattern. Meanwhile, in the question, まく and まくる are each of them both the classical and modern 終止形 of two distinct verbs, both with the 四段 conjugation pattern in classical Japanese, and the 五段 conjugation pattern in modern Japanese. – Eiríkr Útlendi Apr 20 '22 at 23:36
  • 1
    @EiríkrÚtlendi Ok I'm gonna be real with you, that went way over my head. But it was interesting anyway! Hope you'll get your answer! – derpda Apr 20 '22 at 23:52
  • 1
    @derpda, no worries, we all come from different levels! :) Looking at it differently, I may be in too deep. 😆 If you're interested in classical Japanese, the JA Wikipedia has decent articles about the conjugation paradigms, such as the 下二段活用 page. Cheers! – Eiríkr Útlendi Apr 21 '22 at 00:35

0 Answers0