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In:Grammaticalization – Theory and Data
Edited by Sylvie Hancil and Ekkehard König
[Studies in Language Companion Series 162] 2014
► pp. 129–156

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More Thoughts on the Grammaticalization of Personal Pronouns

Evidence from the history of Japanese

Published online: 24 September 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.162.08shi
The grammatical category of personal pronouns is one of the most researched domains in Japanese as well as in other languages. In fact, works on the genesis and development of Japanese personal pronouns in comparison to those in other languages have been continuously reported long before the notion of grammaticalization was introduced and became an important concept in studies of language change. While preceding studies mostly lay emphasis on the different behaviors between Japanese personal pronouns and the counterparts in European languages, Heine and Song (2010, 2011) exemplify some features common among particular sets of languages i.e. referential shifting between different pronouns, especially from third to second person. As a supplemental survey to Heine and Song (2010, 2011), the present study aims to point out other pathways, especially from first to second person, through which personal pronouns are grammaticalized more in Japanese than in other languages.
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