Okurigana : An Analysis from the Viewpoint ofDecoding

著者 本田 啓輔雑誌名 筑波応用言語学研究号 15ページ 87-100発行年 2008-11-30URL http://hdl.handle.net/2241/101989

伽〟r励：

An Ana）ysis from the Viewpoint of Decoding

Keisuke Honda

Keywords：TheJapaneSeWritingsystem；Decoding；KdTyi；Hiragana；Okurigana

1．lntroduGtion

IntheJapanesewritingsystem，hirqganagraphemesconstituteokurikanawhentheyare

postposedtokafyigraphemestospe1loutasectionattheendofwords（1a）orelements

ofcompoundwords（1b）・1

（1）WR汀TENFORM a．食 べ た 2 b．食 べ 過 ぎ た

TRANSuTERÅTION tabe be ta tabe be sugigi ta GLOSS tabe－ta tabe十Sugl－ta

eat－PAST eat＋exceed－PAST

Aswi11beel止oratedonbelow，Okur如naarebasicallyusedfbreaseofkaTdidecoding

（Hoshina1949，Hayashi1977，Kond62005，Satake2006）．Putdi銑rently，OnemaySay

thattheyprovide certainexternalsupport，without which ka吋idecodingwouldbe

difncultorevenimpossible．Whatarethedi餓culties，then，andhowcanWefbrmulate

the wayln Which okurigana reducethem？Besides，do okuriiana o蝕r su餌cient

linguisticinfbrmationrequiredfbrdecoding？Ifnot，Whatkindsofpriorknowledgeare

required，Onthebasisofwhichtheycanbefu11yutilised？

TbanSWerthesequestions，thispaperpresentsadescriptiveaccountofokuriiana

丘omtheperspectiveofdecoding，aimlngatPrOVidingbetterinsightsintothenatureof

kaTyi，hirqganaandtheirinteractioninJapaneSe．Thepaperisorganisedasfbllows・

First，SeCtion20utlinessomebasicissues，eSPeCiallywhatwillbereferredtoasthree

CaSeS OfkaTdiindeterminacy．Next，SeCtion3presentsananalysis ofthe cⅦTent

1Thispaperusesgrqphemetorefbrtothebasicunitofdting（Sproat2000），Withoutcommitting totheoreticaldiscussionsontheappropriatenessofthistraditionalterm（Daniels199l，1994，Herrick 1994a，b）・ForkaTyi，itisusedfortheso－Calledcharacter，andnotfbritsco叩Onent・

2Throughoutthispaper，eXamplesarephonemical1ytraJISliteratedusingthe肋mねikiromamisation SyStem（Cabinet1954），with a ftwminor mod摘cations．Upper cases areused toindicate

Sino－Japaneseitems．TheencodedlinguisticitemsareglossedonlywhennecessarylWherethese

detailsareirrelevaJlt，eXamPlesareshowninasimplerfbrmat（e．g．，食べたtabe－ta’ate’）・

ー87－

COnVentionsconcemlngOkuriganaorthographytoformulateokurigana’scontributionto

theresolutionofthe ka吋iindeterminacies．Thensection4discusses someproblems

Caused by orthogr叩hically permitted variarrts of okurigana・Finally，SeCtion 5

Summarisesthediscussionanddrawsaconclusion．

2．Settings

2．1伽〝igmaas the［ociof kaq／i・功iragaIWinteraction

JapaneSeissubstantiatedbythreesetsofgr叩hemesorscripts，namelykanii，hiragana

andkatakana．Ofthese，the丘rsttwoconstitutethemaincomponentsofthegrapheme

SyStememPloyedinthecurrentJq）aneSeWdtingsystem・TbxtsaretyPica11ycomposed

OfbothtypeSOfgrqphemes，eaChcarrylngOutthespecincfunctionssketchedbelow

Ka7digraphemesencodelinguisticelementswhichbelongtothenative（NJ）andthe

Sino－JapaneSe（SJ）strataofthelexicon．Characterisationoftheseelementsisanissue

Ofongoingdebate（e．g．，Kaiser1995，2007）；forthepresentpurpose，however，itwill

Sufncetoregardthemasindividualmorphemes（e．g．，K6no1994／1977，SamPSOn1985，

Rogers2005）．3contrastively，hiraganagraphemesencodemoraeor；mOrePreCisely，

mora－bearingphonemestrings（i．e．，（C）Vunitsorsegmentsoccupyingthesyllal）1e・COda

POSition）（e．g．，Poser1992，Ratcli脆2001，Rogers2005）．Tbday，theyareprimarilyused

forrepresentingnon－1exicalelementssuchasafnxes，CaSeParticlesandpostpositions・

Withthiskindofdivisionofhbourbetweenkanfiandhiragana，theJqpaneSeWdting

3 Therearetwopointswhichseemtojustifythispostulation．Thenrstpointisconcernedwiththe

Sizeofthelinguisticelementstowhichindividualgraphemescorrespond．FortheSJset，kafyiare

usedfbr魚・eefbrms（e．g．，金fbr幻Ⅳ‘gold，）andcombiningfbrms（e．g．，鉱fbrKOO’metalmine’，

onlypermittedincompoundssuchas金鉱KLⅣ＋KOO’goldmine），Whichcanbegeneralisedas

rootmorphemes．FortheNJset，Ontheotherhand，kaTdiareemployednotonlyfbr舟eefbrms（e・g・，

夢yume‘dream，），butalsofbrwordswhichfbrmanin鮎ctionalparadigm（e・g・，見fbrmi－ru

‘see－NON．PAST，，mi－ia’see－PAST，，mi－rO’see－1MP’，etC．）．The recurrent use of the same

graphemesinview，itseemsreasonabletosaythatthesegraphemesareassociatedtotherecurrent linguisticelements，namelythestemmorphemes・Theseobservationsaぽbrdgroundsfbrpositingthat ka7yicorrespondtomorpheme－Sizedelements・

Thesecondpointisconcemedwiththelevelofabstractionatwhichkafyioperate：itisapalpable factthatthegraphemesdonotindicatemorphophonologicalalternationsinagraphicallydistinctive fashion．ForinstanCe，Observethefo1lowlngCaSeOfcompounding，WhichinvoIvesvowelaltemation

inthenrstelement（eうa）andconsonantvoicinginthesecond（kうg）：酒sa短‘ricewine，十蔵

kura’storehouse，⇒酒蔵sa垣＋gura’rice wine cellar’．Importantly，these graphemes do not Changetheirfbrmsaccordingtothealternations，SuggeStingthatkaTdirelatetolinguisticelementsat a deeperlevelthan the surface phonemiclevel・These two points taken togetheちit seems descriptivelyadequatetointerprettheseelementsasmorphemes・

Note，however；thatthisgeneralisationisnotwithoutexceptions．In血ct，SOmekaTUiencode

polymorphemicitems（e．g．，政maturi－gOtO’politics’）orsub－1exicalphonemestringsthatdenoteno

meaningsontheirown（e．g．，葡BUand萄DOOin葡萄Btn）00’grape’）・FurtherresearChis neededfbramoresystematictreatmentoftheseissues・

－88一

SyStemischaracterisedbytheinteractionofdif沌renttypesofgraphemes・

Perh叩Sthemostremarkablecaseofka吋i－hiraganainteractionisinstantiatedbythe

useofokur如na・Ashasbeenalreadymentioned，formallyokuriganaarehiragana

graphemesemployedtospelloutalatterpartofwrittenwordsorelementsofcompound

WOrds・Morespecincal1y，theyarepOStPOSedtoka7digraphemesinawaythattheyspe1l

Outinflectionalendings（2a），aSeCtionattheendof丘eefbrmsorstemmorphemes（2b），

orboth（2c）．4Inthis way，ka7diand okuriganaamalgamatewitheachother to

CO－COnStruCtWdttenwords．

（2）a．見 た b．且 つ

椚f ぬ 鬼α蝕 血

mi－ta katu

See－PAST besides

c．食 べ た

ぬ∂e ムe J〟

tabe－ta

eat－PAST

2．2The current convention＄for okwi8mOrthography

Thescopeofthepresentp叩erislimitedtotheconventionsstipulatedbyJ卸∂助吋i

坤∂（Cabinet198la）andOkuriganano乃ukekata（Cabinet1981b）．］卸∂Kd吋i砂∂is

anOfncialka吋iinventory，Which containsl，945commonly used graphemes U卸∂

ka吋i）and4，087associatedreadings．Despitethenon－bindingnatureofthisinventory，it

isadefactostandardadoptedinlegalandpublicdocumentS，aPPrOVedtextbooks，m叫Or

dailiesandvariousothertypesofpublications．

Okuriganano乃ukekata，Ontheotherhand，isacollectionofregulationsconcern1ng

Okurigana orthography・These regulations are prlmarilyintended as guidelines on

applyingokuriganatojqy∂ka吋igr叩hemes；infact，however，theyarealso叩Plicable

toothernon－Ofncialgraphemesthatareactuallyinuse・Asahybridoftraditionalusage

andmodernattemptsofsystematisation，Okuriganano乃ukekataallowsmanyVariantS

and exceptions besidesthe basicforms de魚ned by generalmies・In general，the

PermittedvariantSCOmPnSeaSmallernumberofokuriganathanthebasicformsdo．

（Thispointisdiscussedinsomedetailinsection4．）

Adoptingtraditionalus？ge，Okuriganano乃ukekata（Cabinet1981b）constrain＄the

Adoptingtheconventionalconceptionofokurigana，thispaperassumesthatevenifhfrqgana

OCCuPythepost－kaqposition，theydonotconstituteokur＆aiftheyrepresentthefbllowlng：

i）Anelementsyntactical1yaqiacenttowhatthegivenka7direpresents（includingparticlesand POStpOSitions）（e．g．，夢が押椚ega’dreamNOM，）；Or

ii）AnelementofacompoundwordmorphologicallyaqjacenttowhatthegivenkarUirepresents

（e・gり見かた刑卜血ぬ‘modeofs¢ei咽り；Or

iii）Thelightverbsuru（e．g．，心するkokoTV巾uru’beonthealert，）．

ー89－

applicabilityofokuriganawithrespecttothetypesofkanfireadings・First，theyare

usedonlyfbrNJitems，andnotfbrSJitems（asstatedin台4－2－40fthePrefhceto

OkurigtmanoI吉ukekata）．Second，Okur卸naarenotemployedforNJnominals，eXCePt

fbrnominalderivativesandasmallsetofexceptionalitems（asstatedin専2’Words

Withoutco再ugationT）．Becauseoftheseconstraints，atPreSentOkuriganaareprimarily

usedfbrNJnon－nOminalitemssuchasverbs，a句ectives，adverbs，etC．

2．3伽〟ribav7aaS aides to decoding

General1yspeaking，Wdtingcanbeviewedasarelation，inwhich“particular（SetSOf）

1inguisticelementslicensetheoccurrenceof（setsof）orthogr叩hicelements”（Sproat

2000：9；italicsintheoriginal）．Onceestablished，thisrelationcanbeimplementedas

mappingsinbothdirections：録omlinguisticelementsontoorthographicelements（i・e・，

ビガ甜威喝），OrViceversa（i息，血od塘），5

InJapaneSe，kaniigraphemesareknowntOCauSedi疏cultyindecoding，andprevious

studies have shown three cases where okurigana may be considered to remove or

reducethedi餌culty．6First，Satake（2006）pointstothegeneral1ackofphonological

infbrmation onthe part Of ka頑i．Tb be more specinc，ka吋igraphemes are not

analytically struCturedinawaythatsma11ergraphicconstituentsindicates豆b－1exical

Phonemestrings（e．g．，Syllal）les，mOrae，Phonemes，etC．）regular1yandsystematically

（K6no1980／1969）．7Thisisillustratedin（3），WherethephonemestringBNisencoded

by a setofkaTUigraphemeswithnocommongraphic constituent・The absenceof

graphically expressedphonemicanalysisconstitutesaseriousproblemfordecoding，

Sinceitmakesitimpossibletoderivethephonemicformofakafdireadingdirectly

fromthegrapheme’sarChitecture．Herea氏er，thisproblemwillbetentativelyrefbrredto

asthein（ね（el・minaり｝（！fphonemic．hT・mS．

（3）属八「・う（円，延，沿，炎，宴，…‡

5ThisisnottosaythatencodinglSSimplytheinverseofddcoding，Orviceversa・Foradiscussion Onthedi飴rencesbetweenthesemappingsinJapanese，SeeKawai（1970）・

6Thispointdeservesexplicitemphasis，SincemuchmoreattentionhasbeenglVentOtheencoding sideofokurigana，O鮎nwithparticularrefヒrencetoissuessurroundingorthographicregularisation

（e．g．，KokuritsuKokugoKenkyqio1952，Ono1958，T如kishima1970，Uchida1972／1961，Hayashi 1977，Abe1989），Forareviewoftheseissues，SeeAbe（1989）andlもkebe（1979），interalia．

7Inprinciple，theso－Ca11edphoneticcomponentsofsemanti叩honeticcompounds（keねeika頑）are designatedtoindicatethepronunciationofSJitems・Nevertheless，therearediscrepanciesoverthe

actualefEbctivenessofthephoneticcomponentsinpresent－dayJapanese（Nomura＆It61978，Stalph

1989，Saito，Kawakami＆Masuda1995）．Moreover，these components provide virtua11y no

infbrTnationatallaboutNJitems（exceptfbrasmallnumberofkok74igraphemes）．

－90－

Satake（2006）maintainsthatthefunctionofokuriganaistomakeupfortheshortageof

Phonologicalinfbrmationin ka7digraphemes．Ⅰmitively，this remark cq）tureSthe

empirical払ctexperiencedbythewriter－readerofJapaneSe：itisoftenthecasethatone

makesre丘rencetothephonologicalinformationofokuriganatoworkoutunCertainor

unkn0wnkaQireadings．Thatsaid，Satake（2006）doesnotprovideadetailedaccount

and，aSamatterOffact，VeryftwstudieshavetakenpalnStOdiscussthephenomenonat

hand・Accordingly，1tremainsunClearwhatkindofcontributionokuriganamake，and

howitworksfortheeaseofdecoding．

InadditiontotheindeterminacyofphonemicfbrmS，tWOmOreCaSeSOfindeterminacy

arisefromthehighlyambiguousnatureofkaTyi．AsⅥnce（2002），Kond6（2005）and

manyothersobserve，alargenumberofkaTdigraphemeshaveseveralpossiblereadings・

Thisis a situation knownaS homogr呼妙，Where a single orthographic element

COrreSPOndstomultiplelinguisticelements（Ⅵmce2002，Rogers2005）．Homographic

ka吋iareinl1erentlyambiguous becausethese graphemes do notincorporateany

COnStituentsmarkingoutthesingleintendedreadinglnagr叩hica11ydistinctivemanner・

Tb makethe matters more complicated，many homographic ka頑iare POtential1y

ambiguousattwolevels（Kond62005，Honda2007）．Atthemorphemelevel，OnOne

hand，aSlngleka吋imayencodeseveralNJmorphemes，SeVeralSJmorphemes，Orboth

（4a）．Attheword－fbrmlevel，Ontheother，thesamekaTdimaybeusedfbrasetof

VariousinnectedfbmlSrealisingaparticularstemmorpheme（4b）．Asaresult，itis

hardlypossibletopredicttheintendedreadingofahomographicka吋ibyjustlookingat

itsstruCture・Thepresentpapertentativelylabelsthesetwokindsofambiguityasthe

in（h（erminaqlQ［mofl，hemesandthei17（k（erminaq∫Qf－i7dlecfed．わ7・mLY，reSPeCtivcly．

（4）a．食 う 〈ねあβ－，た打伸一，血相W－，ぶ阿片坊罰び‡

b．食 う（ねゐβ－r〟，Jd∂ピー叫ね加一和，．．．）

Itiswidelyacceptedthatokuriganabringaboutane飴ctivesolutiontotheseproblems，

too．Attheword－fbrmlevel，theyspelloutsomeorallrelevantelementssothatthe

targetin鮎ctedformisexplicitlydistinguishedfromotherpossibleforms（Tbukishima

1970，SamPSOn1985，Abe1989，Vance2002，andmanyothers）．Inaddition，SeVeral

researchers have suggestedthatokurigana servetO disambiguatehomographickaQi

alsoatthemorphemelevel（Hoshina1949，Hi11Ⅰ967，SamPSOn1985，Ⅵmce2002，

Coulmas2003，Honda2005）．TbsumuPtheirdescriptions，Okuriganaspecifythesingle

intendedmorphemebyspellingoutasectionattheendofitsrealisedfbrm（thispoint

wi11befurtherdiscussedinsection3．3）．However，despitetheoccasionalrefもrenceto

－91－

thesepointsintheliterature，StillwantinglSaSyStematicanddetailedanalysisofthe

mechanismbywhichokuriganaservetOreduceambiguity．

3．lndeterminacy resolution

Inlightofthelackofelaborateinvestigations，thissectionattemptstoformulatetheway

Okur如nacaJlbeconsideredtoresoIvethethreecasesofkafyiindeterminacy．Foreach

CaSe，relevantconventionsofOkuriganano乃ukekataareanalysedtoglVeafbrmal

accountoftheindeterminacyresohrtion．Theanalysisisalsoaimedatidentifyingthe

kinds ofpriorknowledgethatarepresupposedforman1Pulatingtheinformationof

Okuriganaforthepurposeofdecoding．

3．1Reso（ving theindeterminacy of phonenic forms

Asmentionedearlier，theindeteminacyofphonemicfbrmsisascribedtothelackof

graphical1yexpressedanalysisoflinguisticelementsintosub－lexicalphonemicstrings・

OkuriganaplayacruCialroleinresoIvingthisproblembyspellingouttheendofthese

elements，Whichine飴ctaddsonpartialphonemicanalysisandthusspeci鮎stheka吋i

readings．Logical1y，thisisapplicableinallcaseswhereokuriganaarepresent，Sincethe

lackofphonemicanalysisisapropertycommontoal1kaniigraphemes・

WithintherangeOfOkur如nanonLSkekata（Cabinet1981b），thisismostvisiblein

丘ee fbrmS SuCh as（non－derived）advetbs（5わ，COrtiunCtions（5b）and，in some

exceptionalcases，nOminals（5c）．Here，Okuriganaareappliedtokaniigraphemesin

SuChawaythattheyrepeatthe重nalmora（e）oftheintendedreadings．Inthisway，they

SuggeStthephonemicfbrmoftheentirewordandthusresoIvetheindeterminacy．

（5）a．再 び b．且 つ C．辺 り

、舟ねねゐ仁鋸 肋〟 血 〟ぬr～ r～

futatabi katu atari

again besides su汀0undings

Similarly；Okurikanaindica士e the realised phonemicformS Ofstem morphemes by

repeatingasectionatthestem－Bnalposition・8InJapaneSe，Verbstemscanbedivided

intotwoclasses，namelythoseendingwithavowel（VJverbs）andthoseendingwitha

COnSOnant（C－Verbs）．Followingthetraditionalusage，Okuriganano乃ukekatastipulates

80kur卸nano乃ukekatapermitsmanyexceptions，makingthematterfhrmorecomplicatedthaJlis describedhere．Ytt，thisdoesnota飽ctthepointbeingmade，aSinanycaseokurな訊arepeata

Sma11erorl町gerSeCtionatthestem一缶nalposition．

ー92－

thatokuriganaspelloutoneormorestem一員nalmora（e）inVLverbs（6a），andtheunit

comprisingthestem戎nalconsonantandthesu餌x－initialvowelinC－Verbs（6b）．9For

a4jectives，thebasicru1eistospellouttheinnectionalsu疏x（i．e．，－ior－na）；inreality，

however，theyalsorepresentstem－nnalmora（e）invariousclassesofitems（6c）．10

（6）a．食 べ る b．飲 む c．楽 し い

Jα占β 占g r〟 〝0椚 椚〟 Jα乃0∫～∫f J

tabe－ru nOm－u tanOSl・1

eat－NON．PAST drink－NON．PAST pleasurable－NON．PAST

Atthispolnt，itisimportanttOStreSSthatokurなanaprovideonlypartialphonological

infbrmation；thatis，theydonotrepeatthewholephonemicfbrmOfakaniireading（e．g．，

＊再ふたたび，＊食たべる，etC．）．‖Accordingly，thephonemicfbrmcannOtbesimply

dbrived丘omthewittenfbrm；rather，itmustbeinP？rred録omthepartialinfbrmation

provided．Suchinftrencenecessarilypresupposestwokindsofpriorknowledge，namely

the knowledge aboutthephonemic fbrmS Ofthe glVenlingulStic element，and the

knowledgeaboutgrqphemepto－Phonemecorrespondencerules．Withoutthem，thereis

nowayofutilisingtheinformationofokur如nainanymeaningfulway．Tbsumup，One

maysaythatokuriganaresoIvetheindeterminacyofphonemicfbrmsonthebasisthat

thereaderhasaccesstotheknowledgeofbothtypes・12

3．2ResoJving theindeterminacy ofinf］ected forms

Insection2．3，itwasshownthattheindeterminacyofin皿ectedfbrmsarises丘omthe

9ThisdescriptionisbasedonamorphologlCalanalysISOfJapaneseverbs，Whichdiffbrs＆omthe traditionalanalysIS Ofverbcolt）ugationin severalrespects．Forexample，什omthestandpointof

morphology，thetwoverbsin（6a）and（6b）canbeanalysed astabe－ruandnom叫reSPeCtively，

Wheretabe－aJldnom－COnStitutetheverbstems．Intraditionalschemes，thesameverbs maybe

endwith

TSi（e・g・，itUirusi－i’remarkal）le’），一ka（e．g．，atataka－na’wam’），ヅaka（e．g．，0両脚kaTna’calm’），Or

－raka（akiT・aka－na’obvious’）．The sameis also true fbr several1exica11y speci鮎ditems（e．g．，

αrαJα一刀α‘new’）．

11This standsin marked contrasttojhrigana，Orhirqganagraphemes sup叩OSed onka ゆめ

graphemestospellouttheka4ireadingin餌1（e．g，，夢yume’dream，；ゆうyu，めうme）．In

thiscase，thephonemicfbrmcanbederiveddirectlyfromthephonologicalinfbTmationPrigma 駅諾

ape，猥S皿eS血hen。db，maybeahmmuse，。ftheJa，弧eSeWritingsystem（nadve。T

non－native，leamedorleaming），OramaChinedesignedtoconvertw血ingintospeech（SuChasa

text－tO－SpeeChsynthesissystem）．ThepresentdiscusSionisconcernedwithmattersintemaltothe

Wdting system per se，and notwiththe psycholinguistic process ofreading or the system arChitecture．

ー93－

PrOblemofhomography－inducedambiguityattheword－fbrmlevel・Therecurrentuseof

thesameka吋iforvariousin瓜ectedfbrmsmakesitimpossibletodeterminetheintended

fbrmbylookingatthegraphemeitself二MeanWhile，itwasalsoshownthatthereisa

Clear consensusamOng reSearChers that okurigana specifytheintendedform by

indicatingtheinnectionalending．

ThebasicprlnCipleofOkurikanano乃ukekataisthatokurなanaspelloutinnectional

endings，Whichconsistofsu餌ⅩeSdenotlngtenSe，aSPeCt，mOdality，etC・13Byextension，

Okur如na are c叩able of specifyingany POSSibleinflectionalfbrm，eVenifitis

morphologicailyhighlycomplexasmi－SaSe－rare－tagar－anaka－at－ta’didnotwanttObe

madetosee，（7）．14

（7）見 さ せ ら れ た が ら な か っ た 邦吉一 ∫α ∫g rJ7 作 ぬ 脚 r（7 乃α 血 9 ね

mi－SaSe－rare－tagar－anak－at－ta

See－CAUS－PASS－WanトNEG－be－PAST

Interestingly，thespellingoutofinflectionalendingsisnotonlyexhaustivebutalso

Surface－Orientedin terms ofthelevelof abstraction．InJapanese，there are

morphophonologicalprocessescollectivelyknownaSOnbin，Whereincertainclassesof

Stem－nnalconsonantSalternatewith0ther segments when concatenated to some

innectionalsufnxes．ForinstanCe，Whenthestemskak－‘write’，yOm－‘read’and

‘take’are fbllowed bythe pasttense sufnx－ta，they become kai－，yONland toQ－，

respectively（8a－C）．15Notethatokuriganarepresentthesurfacephonemicfbrmsrather

thanthemoreabstractmorphophonemicforms．

（8）a．書 い た b．読 ん だ c．取 っ た

如か f ね γ0椚－〃 血 わr－ e ぬ

ka［i］－ta yO【n］－ta tO［t］－ta

Wdte－PAST read－PAST take－PAST

WiththeexhaustiverepresentationofthesurfhcephonemicformS，Okuriganaspecify

13 TherearevaryingviewsastowhatconstituteinnectionalsufnxesinJapaneSe（e．g．，NaJTOg1998，

i。，di。n，thesymb。1。d。n。t。SC。nS。n狛．1engh，Whichism。，ai。in，apm配 15 InthetranSliteration，theelementsshowninsquarebracketsdenotethesu血cephonemicfbrms・

ThesymboINdenotesthemoraicnasal，Whichmayberealisedby［n］，［m］orb］asaresultof

regressiveassimilation．

ー94－

theinnectedfbrmSeXplicitlyandinvariably・Thisisobviouslyane飴ctivesupportfbr

decoding，Whichcanbeexploitedonthebasisofknowledgeaboutinnectionaland

derivationalmorphologyoftheJapaneSelanguage．

3，3ResoIving theindeterminacy of morphemes

Theindeterminacyofmorphemesresults録omtheproblem ofhomogr叩hy－induced

ambigultyatthemorphmelevel，WhereinaslnglekaTdiencodesseveralNJmorphemes，

SeVeralSJmorphemes，Orboth・Themorphemesmaybemoreorlesslooselyrelated

WitheachotherintermSOfmeaning，butusuallythereislittleornosimilaritybetween

therealisedphonemicforms．ThisisillustratedbytheexamPle（6a）（repeatedhereas

（9）），Whichencodes重vedistinctmorphemes，allrelatedtothemeaning’toeat’・Asis

ClearfromthisexamPle，neitherthegraphemestructuresnorthemorphemes，meanlngS

provideasolidbasisfbrdetermlnlngtheintendedmorpheme．

（9）a．食 う 一匝払漣抑，血相W－，ぶW拭Z庶丹

Asfarasfhctorsinternaltotheorthographicrepresentationareconcerned，Okurigana

O飽re銑ctivesolutionstothisproblem・Oneformofsuchsolutionscomes舟omthe

Orthographic conventions．AsKaiser（1995）points out，thepresence ofokurigana

implicatesthatthegiven kaTdisteLnds fbr a NJmorpheme（10）・Thisis because

okuriganaareconventionallylimitedtoNJnon－nOminalreadings（SeeSeCtion2・2）・16

WiththeknowledgeofthisorthographicconstraintandofthedistinctionofNJandSJ

items，itispossibletodistinguishNJnon－nOminals＆omSJitemsandNJnominal＄・17

（10）食 べ 物 C£ 食 物

ゐe 椚0〝0 ぶWぴAのrU’

The phonologlCalinformation of okurigana enables a more explicitform of

indeterminacyresolution．AsHoshina（1949）andHi11（1967）mentionit，Okurigana

沌TheabsenceofokuriganadoesnotnecessarilyimplicatethattheintendedmorphemeisSJ，Since 三

‥ざ

aqacentgraphemes．Inatwo－kaTyistring，fbroneinstance，thereadingofthe伽stgraphemetendsto

beSJ（e．g．，垂水迎＋StH‘seawater，）．Nonetheless，SuCh‘rulesofthumb’donota恥rdasound

basisfbrde＞COdingbecauseitiseasyto触dcounterexamples（e．gり海猫zm2i＋neko’black－tailed

gull’）．Amorereliablealternative，prObd）ly，istocheckthesyntacticrelationbymakingrefbrenceto

a句acenthiraganagraphemes，Whicharelikelytorepresentcaseparticlesandothergrammatical

elements．Combinedwith one，slexicalknowledge，itmightleadtothe corTeCtdecodingofa homogmphic画才．

－95－

WhichspecifytheintendedinnectedfbrmalsospeCifytheintendedmorpheme・More

SPeC泊cally，SamPSOn（1985）andCoulmas（2003）arguethatwhenokuriganaspellout

the丘nalconsonantofaC－Verbstem，theyareine飴ctru1ingouta1lotherpossible

morphemeswhichdonotendwiththisparticularconsonant・TocitetheirexamPle，the

grapheme歩encodes（amOngOthers）twonear－SynOnymOuSNJverbs，namelyarukl

‘walk’andLD｝um－’walk’．Theokuriganaく kuspec摘estheformerbyrepeatingthe

Stem一重nalk（11a），andむmuspecinesthelatterbyrepeatingthestem一重nalm（11b）・

（11）a．歩 ⊥ b．歩 迦

（〟用か，鱒‡ 血 （惑，q職朋－） 血 †∴∵」

Honda（2007）extendsthisnotiontodrawawidergeneralisation．Thebasicideaisthat

thesameloglCaPpliestoallclassesofmorphemeswi10Seendingpartisrepeatedby

Okurigana．WithintherangeOfOkuriganano乃〟kekata，theseincludestemsofVverbs

andmanyaqjectives，aSWe11as録eefbrmssuchasnon－derivedadverbs，COqugations

andasmallsetofnominals（seesection3．1）．Again，Okurなanaspecifytheintended

morpheme by spelling outits ending portion，While discardingallother possible

Candidateswhichdonot丘ttheindicatedphonemicform．

Additional1y，Okurikanano乃ukekatahasbeenfine－tunedsothatokuriganacanbe

utilisedfbrdistinguishingbetweenwordsinthesameWOrdfhmily．Thisisillustratedby

thetranSitiveandintranSitiveformsoftheverb’tomix’（12a－C）．Morphologically，these

WOrdsmaybeviewedasrealisingthreedistinctverbstems（i．e．，thetranSitivemaze－，

andtheintranSitivemamr－andmazir－），Whichareinturnderive録omthesingleroot

maz－．Here，Okurigana spe1loutnot onlytheinflectionalsu餌Ⅹ（－r）u，but also the

Stem一銭nalsectionswherecontrastsoccur（i．e．，－Ze靡，－Zar－andrzir－）．Thismeasure，且rst

formulatedbyUchida（1972／1961），istakensolelyfbrthesakeofdecoding．Withoutit，

thetwointranSitivefbrmSWOuldbewrittenidentically（i．e．，混る），andthismighteven

beconfusedwiththetranSitiveform，eSPeCia11y・Whenitistakenoutofcontext．

（12）a．混 ぜ る b．混 ざ る c．混 じ る

〝‡αZe－ Zβ r〟 〝7αZαr一之α r〟 〝7αZJr一之ヱ r‡J

Asintheresolutionoftheindeteminacyofphonemicfbrms（section3．1），Okur卸na

PrOVideonlypartialphonologicalinformation．FromthisitfbllowsthatresoIvingthe

indeterminacyofmorphemesalsorequlreSthepnorknowledgeofphonemicformS，On

Onehand，andofgrapheme－tO－Phonemecorrespondences，Ontheother．Providedthat

－96－

thesetwokindsofknowledgeareavailable，Okurなαnamaybeutilisedtospecifythe

intendedNJnonqnominalmorphemephonographical1y・18

4．lndeterminacy resoIutionin the permjtted varjant＄

OkurigananoThkekatapermitsarangeofvariants，Whichgenera11ycomprlSeaSmaller

numberofokuriianathan the basicforms do．According tothe regulations，these

VariantSCanbeused”aslongastherearenorisksofmisreading”．Thejudgementasto

Whethertheymaycausemisreadingisle氏toindividualwdters．Thus，eVenthough

Pr10rityisglVentOthebasicformS，thereisvirtuallynolimittotheuseofthevariants．

lnreal1ifb，theyareoRenprefbrredoverthebasicformsbecausetheyconsumeless

SpaCe，ink，energy，etC．

Becausethepermitted variantS COnSist ofa smalleramOunt Ofokurigana，they

PrOVideasmal1eramountofinfbrmationthatcanbeexploitedfbrdecoding．Forone

example，thegrapheme祭encodestwomorphemes denoting’fbstival，，namelyNJ

maturiandSJSALInitsbasicfbrm，thefbrmerisdttenas祭り，Withtheokurigana

り rirepeatingthelastmora．Inthisway，itisdi飴rentiated舟omthelatter，WhichisSJ

andthustakesnookurな・ana．However，itispermittedtoomittheokur如nainquestion，

andthisresultsinahomographic representationthatisinherentlyambiguous．This

VariantisactuallyattestedinvariousfもstivalnameSaCrOSSJapan，andwhetheritshould

bedecodedasmaturiorSAIislexicallyspec摘edaccordingtoindividualfbstivals（13）．

Fromtheviewpointofthepresentstudy，thisisclearlyasetbackfbrdecoding．

（13）葵祭aoi＋ma（uri‘AShinto蝕tivalcelebratedinKyoto， C£？aoi＋SAI

An0therexamPlecanbefbundintheNJcompounduke十tuke’reception’．Thebasic

fbrmforthiswordis受け付け，Whereintheokuriganaけkespellsoutthe丘nalmora

in bothelements（14a）．Althoughthe two ka7digraphemes encodethree distinct

morphemesrespectively（i．e．，受う（uke－，ukar－，ZYU）；付う（tuke－，tukar－，FU）），

the okuriganaindicatestherealisedphonemicfbrmSandthusspeci鮎stheintended

morphemes．Nevertheless，thisokuriganaisoftendroppedinoneelement（14b）orboth

（14c）．Tb decodethese variantS，itis necessary to make refbrenceto one’slexical

柑 Tbbe触thisconclusionholdstrueOnlylnCaSeSWhereokur如nadoaccompanyka7di graphemes・Inreality，theapplicabilityofokzq如naisheavilyrestrictedbyseveralconditions・Tb

makemattersworse，thereaLreSOmekaTyithatarenotsufncientlydisaJnbiguatedevenifokurなαna

arepresent．Forafu11discussion，SeeHonda（2007）．

Nonetheless，thesefactsbynomeaJISreducetheimportanceofokurなロna’scontributiontothe

resolutionoftheindeterminacyofmorphemes．Withoutthem，decodingwouldbeentirelydependent

OngueSSingand，atbest，infbrence舟omtheorthographicandsyntacticcontexts（Seefbotnote17）・

－97－

knowledgeand checkifthere are suchlexicalitems as＊uke＋tukar（－i），＊uke＋FU，

＊ZYU＋FUandsoforth，befbredetemlnlngthatuke＋tukeistheonlypossibleand

existingword・Again，thisisam印Ordrawbackfbrdecoding・

受 け一鹿

け一触

（14）a． b．受 付 止 c．受 付

〟鹿J〟お 鹿 以鹿 抽鬼e

ItisclearffomtheaboveexamPlesthatthesmallertheamountOfokuriganaemployed

fbrencoding，thelargertheamOuntOflexicalknowledgerequiredfordecoding・A

recent survey Of70JapaneSe magaZines conducted bythe NationalInstitute fbr

JapaneSe Language SuggeStS a generaltendency to use the basicformS，atleastin

non－SPeCialist publications（Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyq502006），Still，the sporadic

OCCurrenCeSOfthevariantSarebynomeanSnegligible．Inviewofthisfact，itwouldbe

Safbtosaythatlexicalknowledgeisindispensableforutilisingokuriganafbrdecoding・

5．ConcJuding rernarks

This paper has presented a descriptive account ofJapanese okurなana触）m the

VleWPOintofdecoding，withparticularreftrencetothecurrentconventionsconcernlng

Okurなanaorthography．Previousstudieshavebeenreviewedtooutlinethreecasesof

kanfiindeterminacy，andananalysis has been conducted toformulate the way

Okurigana canbe saidto resoIvetheseindeterminacies．Some problems caused by

OrthographicallypermittedvariantSOfokuriganaapplicationhavebeenalsodiscussed．

Fromthediscussionabove，itseemsreasonabletoconcludethatthefbllowlngtyPeS

OfprlOrknowledge are requiredto exploit okurigana fbrthe purpose ofdecoding．

Furtherresearchisneededtoinvestigatetheutilityofthesetypesofknowledgeinother

aspeCtSOftheJapanesewdtingsystem．

＞ LingulStic

－Lexicalknowledge，eSpeCiallyaboutphonemicfbrmSandthedistinctionofNJand

SJitems；and

－Morphological knowledge，eSPeCial1y aboutinnection，derivation and

morphophonemicaltemations．

＞ Orthographic

－Knowledgeaboutgrapheme－tO－Phonemecorrespondences；and

－Knowledgeal）OutOrthographicconstraints，eSpeCiallythoserestrictingtheway

Okuriianacanbeappliedtoka吋igraphemes．

ー98－

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