From analytic to synthetic – origin of some early Japanese volitive expressions
From analytic to synthetic – origin of some early Japanese volitive expressions

Summary/Abstract: At many stages of its development the Japanese language has shown a marked tendency to replace analytic constructions with synthetic forms. In the article this phenomenon is presented and investigated by taking the example of some volitive expressions, among other things the Old Japanese construction -(a)maku posi-, which evolved into the Classical Japanese suffix -(a)mafosi-, as well as the Classical Japanese suffix -(a)mau-, whose origin, however, is to be associated with analogical formation rather than phonetic reduction. All phases of the development of these expressions are here copiously illustrated with textual examples.

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