Approaches to Systemic Functional Grammar - Convergence and Divergence - Gordon Tucker
13. Negation in Japanese: A New Treatment of Nai as a Process Type in the Japanese Transitivity Network - A Kyoto Grammar Approach
Approaches to Systemic Functional Grammar - Convergence and Divergence - Gordon Tucker
Masa-aki Tatsuki
Doshisha University
Description
Tatsuki’s chapter explores the transitivity system of Japanese by way of the negator nai which functionally is itself a type of Process. The four main types of Process in Japanese are recognized as possessive, active, stative, and static: the static type has the subtypes of attributive, realised by the ‘adjective’ class, and manner, realised by the ‘adjectivals’ class, with nai inflectionally patterning like an adjective but semantically the negative of the stative inanimate. Tatsuki explores the implications of this placement of negation within the system of transitivity and its interaction with the system of modality.