An Analysis of Japanese ta / teiru in a Dynamic Semantics Framework and a Comparison with Korean Temporal Markers a nohta / a twuta

An analysis of Japanese ta / teiru in a dynamic semantics framework and a comparison with Korean temporal markers a nohta / a twuta Yoko MIZUTA Research Information Research Division, National Institute of Informatics 2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 101-8430, JAPAN ymizuta@nii.ac.jp Abstract In this paper I will shed new light on the semantics of Japanese tense-aspect markers ta and teiru from dynamic semantics and contrastive perspectives. The focus of investigation will be on the essential difference between ta and teiru used in an aspectual sense related to a perfect. I analyze the asymmetry between ta and teiru with empirical data and illustrate it in the DRT framework (Discourse Representation Theory: Kamp and Reyle (1993)). Defending the intu- ition that ta and teiru make respectively an eventive and a stative description of eventualities, I argue that ta is committed to an assertion of the triggering event whereas teiru is not. In the case of teiru, a triggering event, if there is any, is only entailed. In DRT, ta and teiru intro- duce respectively an event and a state as a codition into the main DRS. Teiru may introduce a triggering event only as a codition in an embedded DRS. I also illustrate how the proposed analysis of the perfect meaning fits into a more general scheme of ta and teiru. and analyze ta and teiru in a discourse. Furthermore, in DRT terms, I will compare Japanese ta / teiru with Korean perfect-related temporal markers a nohta / a twuta in light of Lee (1996). 1 Introduction Japanese tense-asepct markers ta and teiru are both analyzed to have a perfect state meaning, among others. 1 However, in the literature, ta and teiru have been studied more or less individually, and the relation between their perfect state meanings is left to be investigated (Kudo (1995), Ogihara (2001)). They exhibit an asymmetry as Inoue (2000) observes it (Glosses and translations are mine): 2 (1) a. [The water in the kettle comes to the boil while the speaker sees it.] Yoshi, o-yu-ga wai-{ta / ?? teiru}. All right, Hon-hot-water-Nom (come-to-the-)boil-{Past / State-Nonpast} o.k. ’All right, the water has (just) come to the boil.’ / ?? ’The water is on the boil.’ b. [The speaker put the kettle on the gas and left. Some time later he comes back and finds the water boiling.] Ah, o-yu-ga wai-{ta / teiru}. ’Oh, the water has come to the boil.’ / ’Oh, the water is on the boil.’ c. [The speaker comes to the kitchen and finds the water boiling. (He doesn’t know who put the kettle on the gas.)] 1I assume that the Japanese tense / aspect is encoded in terms of tei(ru) (stative) / non-tei(ru) (non-stative) forms and ta (past) / non-ta (nonpast) forms. Here I focus on ’non-tei(ru) + ta’ and ’tei(ru) + non-ta’ combinations. 2For practical reasons I use a single gloss ’Past’ for ta with any meaning. PACLIC 18, December 8th-10th, 2004, Waseda University, Tokyo - 59 - Are, o-yu-ga wai-{?? ta / teiru}. …

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